JAKVES'  HISTORY. 


TO 


SENTIMENTS      OF     RESPECT     AND     ESTEEM, 
BY   HIS    SINCERE    FRIEND, 

AUTHOR. 


PRINTED  AT  THE  PACIFIC  COMMERCIAL  ADVERTISER  PRESS, 
HONOLULU,  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


EXTRACT 

FROM  PREFACE  TO  FIRST  AND  SECOND  EDITIONS. 


THE  author  deems  it  proper  briefly  to  state  the  causes,  which  have  led  him 
upon  venturing  to  place  before  the  public,  a  narrative  of  a  nation  so  youthful  in 
annals,  that  constitute  claims  to  the  appellation  of  history  in  its  most  dignified 
sense.  If  he  had  been  more  ambitious  of  the  credit  of  an  historiographer,  than 
desirous  of  presenting  in  their  true  light,  the  historical  incidents  of  an  interest- 
ing though  humble  people,  a  field  of  greater  events  and  more  storied  interest 
would  have  been  selected.  But  deeds  are  not  always  to  be  judged  by  the  ex- 
tent of  the  territories  which  gave  them  origin,  or  principles,  by  the  degree  of 
the  individuals  who  were  the  means  of  their  dissemination.  Both  must  be  tested 
by  their  relative  effects.  The  record  of  the  spread  of  moral  worth  and  political 
freedom  in  a  nation,  however  puny,  is  deserving  of  far  more  attention,  than  the 
tales  of  a  lawless  ambition,  whose  spirit  is  death,  and  whose  path,  misery  and 
ruin.  The  author  fain  would  trust  that  some  of  the  interest  and  instruction 
which  he,  himself,  has  derived  from  studying  the  actual  condition  of  heathenism 
as  it  existed  among  the  Hawaiian  nation,  its  providential  overthrow,  and  the 
gradual  and  increasing  ascendancy  of  Christianity  and  civilization,  despite  many 
re-actions  and  unceasing  hostility,  will  be  imparted  to  his  readers.  The  Christian 
community  have  long  looked  with  kindly  interest  on  this  experiment  ;  their  gift*. 
labors  and  prayers  have  nourished  its  growth ;  but  to  the  remainder  of  the 
world,  it  has  appeared  more  as  an  imperfectly  finished  picture,  in  which  light 
and  shade  were  inharmoniously  blended,  than  as  a  beautiful  illustration  of  the 
power  of  "God  unto  salvation."  In  this  work,  it  has  been  attempted  to  trace 
the  courses  and  results  of  the  antagonistic  efforts  of  the  several  influences  which 
have  been  brought  to  impede  or  accelerate  its  progress,  and  also  to  preserve  in 
a  popular  form,  the  records  of  an  age  which  were  fast  disappearing.  In  the 
traditions  and  customs  of  their  earlier  existence,  much  will  be  found  to  gratify 
the  spirit  of  curiosity  and  research ;  at  least,  the}''  possess  the  merit  of  forming 
a  portion  in  the  general  catalogue  of  human  events,  while  without  them,  an 
additional  page  would  be  numbered  among  the  already  too  numerous  blanks  in 
the  history  of  mankind. 

The  author,  in  pursuit  of  health  and  recreation,  first  landed  on  the  shores  of 
Oahu  in  1837,  imbued  with  much  of  that  spirit  which  erroneously  pervades  the 
interesting  narratives  of  a  Beechey,  a  Kotzebue,  and  others,  who  fancied  them- 
selves honest  searchers  after  truth.  From  his  course  of  reading  and  inquiries 
among  those,  whose  opportunities  had  allowed  them  to  form  correct  opinions, — 
had  not  their  prejudices  been  too  deep  to  be  eradicated  by  reason, — he  had 
formed  the  opinion,  that  the  Hawaiians,  though  bettered  in  morals,  were  ;i 
priest-ridden  people  ;  that  sectarianism  and  world!}'  aggrandizement  were  the 

M77042 


iv  PREFACE  TO   THE  FIRST  AND  SECOND  EDITIONS. 

cogent  motives  of  their  spiritual  teachers,  and  that  they  had  succeeded  in  estab- 
lishing a  system  of  government,  which  for  influence  and  secrecy  of  design  might 
justly  be  compared  to  the  dominion  of  the  Jesuits  in  South  America.  A  close 
examination,  it  was  expected,  would  confirm  these  views.  How  far  these  opinions 
have  been  retained  the  following  pages  will  show.  They  are  the  results  of 
convictions  derived  from  a  nearly  four  years1  residence  at  these  Islands,  with  a 
diligent  study  of  their  ancient  history,  and  its  connection  with  the  political  and 
religious  changes.  If  the  writer  were  of  the  same  sect  as  that  body  whose 
missionary  labors  have  been  instrumental  of  so  much  good,  he  might  be  accused 
of  a  bias  toward  them.  But  such  is  not  the  case  ;  he  feels  it  a  duty  frankly  tu 
bear  testimony  to  truth,  in  whomsoever  it  may  appear,  and  whatsover  may  be 
its  shape.  Had  his  former  views  been  established,  they  would  have  been  as 
freely  proclaimed  ;  his  earnest  desire  being  to  contribute  even  a  mite  to  the 
pages  of  history. 

To  the  valuable  labors  of  the  Rev.  William  Ellis,  author  of  "  Tour  Around 
Hawaii,"  the  author  has  been  greatly  indebted,  and  is  happy  to  be  able  to  verify 
the  general  accuracy  of  his  statements.  His  former  position  as  editor  of  a 
weekly  paper  at  Honolulu,  "  The  Polynesian,"  and  his  relations  with  all  the 
parties  of  that  place,  his  acquaintance  with  the  chiefs  and  natives,  and  with 
others  whose  personal  knowledge  of  historical  events  extended  beyond  his, 
enabled  him  to  collect  much  valuable  information ;  this,  since  his  arrival  in 
Boston,  has  been  carefully  arranged  and  collated,  with  all  the  works  of  authority 
relative  to  the  Islands,  including  the  expensive  foreign  editions  of  early  voyagers. 
Information  has  been  derived  from  individuals  who  early  resorted  thither  for 
trade.  Accuracy  in  all  statements  has  been  diligently  sought,  and,  as  all  the 
events  are  of  comparatively  recent  occurrence,  it  is  believed,  obtained.  The 
translations  from  "  Ka  Mooolelo  Hawaii,"  or  History  of  Hawaii,  written  by  the 
scholars  of  the  High  School  at  Lahainaluna,  were  made  by  the  Rev.  Reuben 
Tinker,  late  a  missionary,  and  may  be  depended  on  for  their  fidelity. 

As  many  of  the  individuals  whose  conduct  has  had  an  important  bearing  upon 
Hawaiian  policy  and  reform  are  still  living,  statements  which  affect  them  have 
been  made  only  when  necessary  for  the  exposition  of  political  movements  ;  and 
then  only  upon  indisputable  evidence.  The  history  of  the  government  is  so 
intimately  involved  with  the  unprincipled  movements  of  a  few  characters,  that  to 
delineate  the  former,  it  was  impossible  to  avoid  picturing  the  latter ;  while  the 
natural  delicacy  of  the  unobtrusive  good,  prevents  a  more  public  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  quiet  yet  effective  exertions  of  individuals  whose  visits  or  residence* 
have  been  peculiarly  beneficial. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Sandwich  Islands— True  Name  — Situation— Number 
and  Extent  —  Harbors  —  General  Appearance  and 
Structure — Rain — Windward  Sides — Leeward  Sides 
—Minerals— Salt  Lake— Soil— Vegetable  Productions 
—  Insects  —  Animals  —  Fishes  —  Climate  —  Winds — 
Storms  —  Diseases  —  Earthquakes  —  Phenomena  of 
Tides— Meteoric  Showers  oi  1825— Water  Spouts. 

THAT  important  cluster  of  Islands, 
situated  in  the  North  Pacific  Ocean, 
commonly  known  as  the  Sandwich  Isl- 
ands, were  so  named  by  Captain  Cook, 
at  the  date  of  their  discovery  by  him,  in 
honor  of  his  patron,  the  Earl  of  Sand- 
wich, then  first  Lord  of  the  Admiralty. 
Their  legitimate  appellation,  and  the  one 
by  which  they  still  continue  to  be  distin- 
guished by  the  aboriginal  inhabitants,  is 
"Hawaii  nei  pae  aina"  a  collective  term, 
synonymous  with  "  these  Hawaiian  Isl- 
ands/' This  term  is  derived  from  the 
largest  of  the  group,  Hawaii,  whence 
the  reigning  family  originated,  and  is 
gradually  taking  the  place  of  the  former. 

The  central  situation  of  the  Hawaiian 
Islands   in   the    vast   North   Pacific,  is 
highly   favorable    to    their   commercial ! 
growth.    Their  extremes  of  latitude  are 
from  18°  50    to  22Q  20:  north,  and  of 
longitude  from  154°  53'  to    160C   15 
west  from  Greenwich. 

This  position   is    nearly  equi-distant 
from  Central  America,  Mexico,  Califor- 
nia, and  the  Northwest  Coast  on  the  one 
side,  and  the  Russian  dominions,  Japan, 
China,  and  the   Philippine  Islands,  on 
the  other.     When  a  civilized  and  enter- 
prising population  shall  have  developed  j 
the  resources  of  those  countries,  these  ' 
Islands  will  bear  the  same  relative  im- 


portance to  them,  in  proportion  to  their 
extent,  that  the  West  Indies  now  do  to 
North  and  South  America. 

Including  Bird  Island,  which  was  well 
known  to  the  others  prior  to  their  dis- 
covery, in  1778,  the  group  consists  of 
twelve. 

The  inhabited  Islands,  eight  in  num- 
ber, are  of  the  following  extent : — 

NAMES.    MILES  LONG.     MILES  BROAD.     SQUARE  MILES. 

Hawaii, 88 73 4000 

Maui, 48 30 620 

Oahu, 46 25 530 

Kauai, 22 25 500 

Molokai, 40 7 190 

l.anai, 17 9 100 

Niihau, 20 7 90 

Kahoolawe, 11 8 60 

Bird  Island  is  a  barren  rock,  1*29 
miles  to  the  northwest  of  Kauai.  Three 
of  the  others  are  equally  unimportant  ; 
Molokini,  an  extinct  crater  of  but  slight 
elevation,  with  one  side  open  to  the  sea, 
lies  midway  between  Maui  and  Kahoo- 
lawe ;  Lehua,  a  mile  to  westward  of 
Niihau,  has  an  elevation  of  1000  feet, 
some  slight  vegetation,  and  an  excellent 
spring  of  water;  Kaula,  seven  miles 
southwest  from  Niihau,  is  of  less  ex- 
tent, and,  like  Bird  Island,  abounds  with 
wild  fowl. 

The  whole  embrace  a  superficial  area 
of  about  sixty-one  hundred  miles,  of 
which  Hawaii  includes  two-thirds.  But 
a  small  proportion  of  their  coasts-,  com- 
pared with  the  Southern  groups,  is 
bounded  by  coral  reefs.  These  are  of 
limited  extent,  and  extend  but  a  short 
distance  from  the  shore,  forming  a  bar- 
rier, over  which  the  sea  rolls  in  sheets 
of  foam. 


6 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


There  are  few  harbors,  though  numer-  j 
ous  channels  occur  in  the  reefs,  affording  | 
entrance  into  basins,  capable  of  accom-  j 
rnodating  coasters.     With  the  exception 
of  Honolulu,  on  the  south  side  of  Oahu, 
no  •  r?a%  gopd; hap^t"?  exists.     At  Ewa, 
ten  to&iie?  to  thce  Jwfe&t  of  .'Honolulu,  there  ! 
is  one  with  "twelve'  feet  "at  low  water  on  j 
the  fbar  j"  vl?e"b¥s4nj  within  is* "sufficiently  ! 
fftpftcfojis^  fa  crecdtQ  Ae  efctijrd  commerce  ! 
of  the  Pacific  ;  but  the  adjoining  land  is 
barren  and  forbidding.     At  Koolau,  on 
the  north  side  of  Oahu,  there  is  another 
harbor,  with  however  but  nine  feet  water  ! 
in  the  channel.  The  surrounding  country  | 
is  verdant,  well  watered,  and  the  breeze  | 
directly  from  the  ocean.     By  deepening 
these  channels,  should  the  commerce  of 
the  kingdom  ever  require  it,  fine  sites 
for  commercial  towns  would  be  formed. 
Hilo  Bay,  on  the  north  of  Hawaii,  com- 
monly known    as  Byron's  Bay,  affords 
excellent  anchorage ;  shipping  are  pro- 
tected by  a  projecting  reef,  and  the  hold- 
ing ground  is  good,  but  the  surf  breaks 
heavily  upon  the  beach,  and  not  unfre- 
quently  renders  landing  difficult.    At  all 
of  the  principal  towns,  with  these  excep- 
tions, the  roadsteads  are  exposed ;    but 
such    is   the   nature    of  the   prevailing 
winds,  that  vessels  can  frequent  them  in 
perfect  safety  during  nine  or  ten  months 
of  the  year.     With  good  ground  tackle 
there  is  little  to  be  feared  at  any  season. 
No  dangers  to  navigation   exist  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  Islands,  with  the  exception 
of  a  reef  off  the  west  coast  of  Kahoolawe. 
It  is  a  little  less  than  two  miles  from  the 
shore,  and  with  two  fathoms  of  water  on 
it  at  low  tide.     A  few  rocks,  within  a 
circumference  of  two  hundred  feet,  com- 
prise its  whole  extent. 

The  structure  of  the  group  is  volcanic. 
On  Hawaii  is  found  the  largest  known 
active  volcano,  and  several  others  of 
gieat  size,  partially  or  wholly  quiescent,  j 
The  mountains  attain  an  elevation  of 
fourteen  thousand  feet.  They  are  of 
great  extent  and  grandeur,  and,  through- 
out  the  group,  present  scenery  of  pecu- 
liar and  beautiful  character.  To  the 
north  they  slope  somewhat  precipitously 
to  the  sea,  covered  with  a  greensward 
at  their  base,  and  above  with  dense 
forests.  Plains  are  broken  by  deep  ra- 
vines, down  whose  steep  sides  cascades 


fall  in  bright  and  pretty  sheets.  Several; 
of  these  often  unite,  as  at  Kauai,  and 
form  rivers  of  considerable  depth  and 
size.  Palis,  or  precipices,  in  many 
parts,  present  stupendous  walls  of  rock, 
from  one  thousand  to  three  thousand 
feet  perpendicular  elevation,  directly 
fronting  the  sea,  the  surging  of  which 
forms  large  caverns  into  which  the  sea 
rushes  with  stunning  effect. 

To  the  windward,  and  on  the  high- 
lands, there  is  abundance  of  rain,  which 
keeps  vegetation  perennially  verdant. 
The  leeward  portions,  during  most  of  the 
year,  suffer  from  drought,  and  offer  a 
cheerless  aspect.  Below  the  region  of 
clouds,  vast  and  rugged  masses  of  broken 
lava  spread  themselves  over  the  country. 
Plains  frequently  occur  with  a  soil  form- 
ed of  ashes  and  cinders,  which,  easily 
set  in  motion  by  violent  gusts  of  wind, 
sweep  over  the  land,  and  are  carried  to 
sea  in  dense  clouds.  During  the  winter 
months,  when  the  trades  are  partially 
interrupted,  showers  often  occur.  When 
much  rain  falls  the  plains  become  cover- 
ed with  a  species  of  coarse  grass,  which 
affords  tolerable  pasturage  for  cattle. 
Extinct  volcanoes  are  very  common. 
They  are  of  every  age,  size  and  shape  ; 
at  places,  crowning  the  summits  of  lofty 
hills  and  mountains;  elsewhere  rising- 
precipitously  from  plains  or  projecting 
into  the  ocean,  they  form  prominent  land- 
marks for  navigators.  One  of  the  most 
singular  and  well-known,  is  the  promon- 
tory near  Honolulu,  called  Leahi,  better 
known  as  Diamond  Head,  from  an  idea 
once  current  that  precious  stones  were 
to  be  found  there. 

The  minerals  are  few  and  simple,  con- 
sisting of  the  usual  variety  of  the  lavas, 
from  the  most  solid  and  granular  to  the 
light  pumice-stone.  Ledges  of  compact 
lime-stone,  a  good  material  for  building, 
are  found  on  several  of  the  Islands. 
These  being  elevated  considerably  above 
the  sea,  have  caused  much  speculation 
as  to  how  they  were  formed  or  arrived 
at  their  present  situation.  The  most 
remarkable  is  at  Kahuku,  Oahu.  No 
metals  have  been  discovered.  Four  miles 
to  the  west  of  Honolulu,  and  within  a 
mile  of  the  ocean,  is  the  famous  salt  lake 
of  Alia-paakai,  elevated  only  a  few  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  sea.  It  is  in  tho 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


"heart  of  a  crater,  nearly  oval  in  form, 
and  about  a  mile  in  circumference.  At 
certain  seasons  salt  forms  spontaneously 
and  in  the  greatest  abundance ;  at  others 
but  little  is  created,  from  its  being  over- 
flowed by  rains.  Some  have  supposed 
it  a  mineral  salt ;  but  the  general  belief 
among  the  natives  is,  that  it  is  formed 
by  evaporation.  The  following  facts 
favor  the  supposition.  Its  general  depth 
is  but  eighteen  inches  ;  near  the  centre* 
a  hole  exists,  five  to  six  fathoms  in  cir- 
cumference, which,  as  no  bottom  has 
been  found  to  it,  is  supposed  to  connect 
with  the  ocean.  Through  this  the  lake 
is  slightly  affected  by  the  tides,  and  at 
times  it  is  crusted  over  with  a  stratum  of 
salt  sufficiently  strong  to-  bear  a  man's 
weight. 

The  soil  of  the  Islands  is  formed  of 
decomposed  volcanic  rocks,  sand,  mud 
and  ashes.  To  be  made  fertile  it  requires 
constant  irrigation.  Valleys  which  re- 
ceive the  debris  and  rains  of  the  moun- 
tains, and  for  ages  have  been  accumula- 
ting deposits  of  vegetable  mould,  are 
exceedingly  rich  and  productive ;  but 
they  are  of  limited  extent.  The  soil 
generally  is  poor,  better  adapted  for 
grazing  than  cultivation,  though  with 
labor  and  skill  it  can  be  made  to  pro- 
duce good  crops.  Nature  yields  but  little 
spontaneously  and  the  inhabitants  have 
always  been  obliged  to  exercise  much 
industry  and  ingenuity  in  their  farms. 
The  principle  article  of  food  is  the  well 
known  kalo  (arum  esculentum).  Great 
labor  is  necessary  in  raising  it  success- 
fully and  it  requires  a  year  or  more  to 
arrive  at  maturity. 

The  banana,  yam,  sweet  potato,  bread- 
fruit, cocoanut,  arrowroot,  sugar-cane, 
strawberry,  raspberry,  ohelo,  (a  berry,) 
ohia,  (a  juicy,  red  apple,  but  of  poor 
flavor,)  are  indigenous  and  plentiful. 
Many  varieties  of  esculent  fruits  and  ve- 
getables have  been  successfully  intro- 
duced, among  which  are  melons,  the 
delicious  chirimoya  from  Peru,  limes, 
oranges,  guavas,  pine-apples,  grapes, 
peaches,  figs,  citrons,  and  tamarinds. 
The  vegetables  of  the  temperate  region 
have  been  acclimated  to  a  considerable 
extent.  The  uplands  of  Maui  produce 
excellent  "  Irish  potatoes."  Wheat  of 
good  quality  thrives  in  the  same  region. 


An  oil  used  in  painting  is  extracted  from 
the  nut  of  the  kukui  tree  (aleurites  tri- 
loba).  Sandal  wood,  suitable  for  export- 
ation, is  mostly  exhausted,  though  the 
young  wood  is  abundant. 

Coffee,  cotton,  indigo,  tobacco,  sugar- 
cane, mulberry,  cocoa  and  most  of  the 
tropical  plants  can  be  successfully  cul- 
tivated on  the  low  grounds,  while  the 
uplands  are  suitable  for  the  productions 
of  more  temperate  regions. 

Insects  are  few,  though  there  are  some 
of  a  destructive  character.  A  species 
of  caterpillar,  the  pelua,  at  certain  sea- 
sons destroys  vegetation  to  a  great  ex- 
tent, eating  even  the  grass  to  its  very 
roots.  A  slug  deposits  its  eggs  in  the 
cotton  blossoms,  which,  when  ripe,  are 
pierced  through  by  the  young  insects, 
and  the  staple  entirely  destroyed.  Large 
spiders  are  very  numerous  and  mischiev- 
ous, weaving  strong  webs  upon  shrubs 
and  young  trees,  in  such  quantities  as  to 
greatly  injure  them.  A  species  of  wood- 
louse,  the  ant-cow,  is  very  annoying, 
A  sooty  crust,  firm,  hard  and  stiff,  like 
strong  paper,  forms  upon  many  varieties 
of  trees  and  plants,  covering  the  bark 
and  even  the  leaves,  giving  them  the 
singular  appearance  of  being  clothed  in 
mourning.  Rats  destroy  the  sugar- 
cane to  a  considerable  extent  annually. 
Though  the  Hawaiian  agriculturist  es- 
capes many  of  the  evils  incidental  to 
other  tropical  climes,  enough  exist  here 
to  make  his  labors  no  sinecure.  Noxious 
vermin,  such  as  mosquitoes,  fleas,  cock- 
roaches, scorpions  and  centipedes,  are 
a  modern  importation  and  have  exten- 
sively increased,  Serpents,  frogs  or 
toads  have  not  as  yet  reached  the  Islands. 
A  small  lizard  is  abundant. 

The  forests  are  usually  very  dense, 
broken  by  deep  chasms,  hidden  ravines 
and  deep  conical-shaped  pits,  which  ap- 
pear to  have  once  been  active  craters. 
The  trees  are  overgrown  with  masses 
of  ferns  and  parasitical  vines,  thickly 
interlaced  and  spreading  their  shoots  in 
all  directions,  which  render  it  a  task  of 
great  difficulty  to  penetrate  their  recess- 
es. There  are  but  few  birds  to  enliven 
these  sylvan  solitudes.  Wild  geese  are 
found  at  Hawaii ;  snipe,  plover  and  wild 
ducks  on  all  the  Islands.  A  variety  of 
the  owl  is  very  common ;  but  nature,  in 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


the  ornithological  as  well  as  the  entomo- 
logical tribe,  has  been  chary  of  her  gifts, 
and  the  traveler  looks  in  vain  for  the 
endless  varieties  which  the  more  favored 
intertropical  countries  afford.  Dogs, 
swine,  rats  and  domestic  fowls  are  indi- 
genous, and,  beside  the  wild-fowl  above 
mentioned,  were  the  only  varieties  of 
animal  food  before  the  introduction  of 
cattle. 

Fish,  of  which  there  are  a  great  va- 
riety, form  one  of  the  chief  articles  of 
diet.  They  consist  chiefly  of  the  albicore, 
bonita,  flying-fish,  shark,  eel,  and  many 
species  preserved  in  artificial  ponds, 
which  acquire  a  delicious  flavor,  and  are 
highly  prized.  The  best  of  these  is  the 
mullet.  Edible  shell-fish  are  also  abun- 
dant, of  which  the  pearl  oyster,  cuttle 
fish  and  prawn  are  the  most  palatable. 
Pearls  are  common,  but  of  no  great  size 
or  beauty.  They  formerly  constituted  a 
profitable  branch  of  trade,  and  were  mo- 
nopolized by  the  king.  The  common 
oyster  is  not  found. 

The  climate  is  salubrious,  and  pos- 
sesses such  remarkable  evenness  of  tem- 
perature that  the  language  has  no  word 
to  express  the  general  idea  of  weather. 
The  tropical  heat  is  mitigated  by  the 
trades,  which  blow  over  a  wide  expanse 
of  ocean  in  the  temperate  zone.  The 
shores  on  either  side  show  but  little  dif- 
ference in  the  results  of  the  thermometer. 
Physiologists  give  a  certain  point  of 
temperature  as  most  conducive  to  health 
and  longevity.  The  mean  heat  of  these 
Islands  approaches  near  to  it,  and  is 
highly  favorable  to  the  full  development 
.and  perfection  of  animal  economy. 

By  visiting  the  interior  and  ascending 
the  mountains  any  desirable  degree  of 
temperature  can  be  attained.  On  the 
highest  mountains  snow  remains  during 
much  of  the  year,  and  in  exposed  situ- 
ations on  Mauna  Kea  throughout  the 
whole.  Snow  storms  occur  on  the  high- 
lands of  Maui  during  the  winter  months. 
On  the  upland  region  of  Kauai,  a  uniform 
elevation  of  four  thousand  feet,  both 
snow  and  hail  occasionally  occur.  The 
temperature  here  is  quite  regular  the 
year  through,  requiring  warm  garments 
and  fires  even  in  the  month  of  July. 
The  district  is  cold  and  wet,  and  of  little 
value.  A  portion  of  it  supports  a  heavy 


growth  of  timber  and  is  frequented  only 
by  wood-cutters.  The  average  temper- 
ature  of  Waimea,  Hawaii,  situated  in 
the  interior,  at  an  elevation  of  about 
four  thousand  feet,  is  nearly  64°  Fahren- 
heit— 48°  being  the  lowest  extreme. 
This  place  affords  an  excellent  retreat 
for  those  whose  constitutions  have  be- 
come enervated  by  too  long  a  residence 
nearer  the  coast.  Rains  are  frequent 
at  this  altitude,  but  the  dryness  of  the 
soil  seldom  leaves  the  ground  damp  for 
any  length  of  time.  At  Mountain  Retreat, 
back  of  Lahaina,  Maui,  an  elevation  of 
three  thousand  feet,  the  temperature  va- 
ries from  40°  to  75° ;  but  such  situations 
afford  few  comforts  for  the  sick  and  their 
dampness  renders  them  otherwise  objec- 
tionable. 

Localities  can  be  selected  on  the  sea- 
shore which  possess  advantages  for  in- 
valids, particularly  those  affected  with 
pulmonary  complaints.  Many  individ- 
uals by  change  of  residence,  have  pro- 
longed their  lives  for  years,  and  others 
who  in  the  less  favored  regions  of  the 
north  were  perpetual  sufferers,  live  with 
scarcely  an  admonition  of  their  disease. 
Lahaina,  Kailua,  Ewa  and  Honolulu 
have  all  a  good  reputation  in  this  respect. 
At  the  former,  during  ten  years,  the 
highest  thermometrical  elevation  was 
86° ;  the  lowest  54° ;  an  extreme  differ- 
ence of  but  32°.  During  no  day  in  this 
period  was  the  range  greater  than  19°. 
June  has  the  highest  range — January 
the  lowest.  But  little  rain  falls  and  for 
successive  months  the  sun  is  rarely  ob- 
scured by  clouds. 

The  common  range  of  the  thermometer 
at  Honolulu  is  12°  per  diem.  The  great- 
est degree  of  heat  during  twelve  years 
in  the  shade  was  90°,  and  54C  for  the 
coldest;  the  mean  about  75°.  Kaiiua 
and  Ewa  vary  but  little  from  the  above. 

At  Koloa,  Kauai,  the  thermometer 
varies  from  50°  to  88° ;  at  Waioli,  from 
55?  to  90°,  with  much  rain.  A  change 
of  wind  affects  the  climate  materially. 
During  nine  months  of  the  year  the 
northeast  trade  blows  with  great  regu- 
larity and  the  temperature  is  very  uni- 
form. Oahu  and  Kauai  are  the  most 
influenced  by  it ;  Maui,  which  is  larger, 
has  in  a  few  places  to  the  leeward,  in- 
cluding Lahaina,  the  regular  land  and 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


sea  breeze.  Hawaii,1  from  its  size  and 
height  of  mountains,  neutralizes  its  in- 
fluence, and  enjoys  an  almost  uninter- 
rupted land  and  sea  breeze.  This  occurs, 
in  some  degree,  even  on  its  northeast 
coast  where  the  trade  is  usually  freshest. 
The  winds  partake  of  the  character  of 
the  sea  breeze  in  the  day,  and  during 
the  night  are  so  modified  by  the  influence 
of  the  land,  as  to  vary  their  course  from 
off  the  shore,  or  become  very  light. 
Where  the  mountain  ranges  are  broken 
by  steep  defiles,  as  at  Kawaihae  and  other 
bays  on  the  west  side,  the  wind  rushes 
through  with  great  violence,  gathering 
strength  as  it  descends  until  it  passes  off 
to  sea  in  furious  gusts.  During  the  win- 
ter months  the  trades  are  interrupted, 
winds  from  the  south  and  west  often  pre- 
vailing for  several  successive  weeks  ; — 
calms  are  also  frequent  and  of  long  du- 
ration. The  south  wind  brings  rain  and 
is  usually  loaded  with  a  briny  vapor 
injurious  to  vegetation.  Its  effects  are 
equally  unpleasant  to  the  human  system. 
Headaches,  catarrhs,  rheumatism,  and 
kindred  diseases,  prevail  during  its  con- 
tinuance. Upon  foreigners  its  influence 
is  very  obvious,  causing  a  compression 
about  the  head  and  an  enervation  which 
indisposes  to  mental  or  physical  exertion; 
the  atmosphere  becomes  oppressive  and 
at  times  feels  like  the  heated  air  of  a 
furnace.  The  miasma  arising  from  the 
lagoons  to  the  southeast  of  Honolulu  is 
blown  back  upon  the  land,  infecting  the 
town  with  an  odor  which  but  for  its  rarity 
would  be  insupportable.  The  natives 
call  it  the  'sick  wind,'  and  with  pro- 
priety. It  sometimes  occurs  with  suffi- 
cient force  to  destroy  their  frail  habita- 
tions and  do  much  damage  to  plantations 
and  forests.  Much  of  the  weather  at 
this  season  is  however  of  the  most  de- 
lightful description ;  the  sky  becomes 
cloudless,  the  atmosphere  dry,  clear  and 
bracing,  and  the  whole  system  feels  the 
invigorating  influence  of  the  change. 
Nothing  can  exceed  the  soft  brilliancy  of 
the  moonlight  nights.  Thunder-storms 
are  rare  and  light  in  their  nature.  No 
hurricanes  have  been  known. 

(Epidemic  diseases  are  few  and  of  a 
light  character.     The  mumps  have  pre- 
vailed very  generally,  and  in  some  cases 
terminated  fatally  through  mismanage- 
2 


I  ment.  The  influenza  occurs  almost  an- 
'  nually  but  is  not  often  fatal  unless  added 
to  other  causes.  The  whooping-cough, 
a  few  years  since,  spread  through  the 
whole  population,  but  soon  entirely  spent 
itself.  Contagious  diseases  are  scarcely 
known,  excepting  those  of  a  cutaneous 
nature,  which  very  generally  prevail, 
owing  to  filthy  habits  and  gross  food. 
The  small-pox  has  raged  in  the  southern 
groups,  but  has  never  reached  here. 
Vaccination  is  very  generally  practiced. 
The  croup  sometimes  occurs.  Hoapili- 
wahine,  a  chief  woman  of  high  rank, 
upwards  of  seventy  years  of  age,  died 
of  this  disease  in  January,  1842. 

Powerful  volcanic  eruptions,  attended 
with  disastrous  effects,  have  occurred  on 
Hawaii  several  times  within  the  memory 
of  the  present  generation.  Some  of  the 
largest  of  the  craters,  such  as  those  of 
Mauna  Haleakala,  (house  of  the  sun,) 
on  Maui,  at  an  elevation  of  eleven  thou- 
sand feet,  have  been  quiescent  from  a 
period  beyond  the  traditions  of  the  in- 
habitants. Earthquakes  are  chiefly  con- 
fined to  the  largest  island ;  the  shocks 
felt  at  Maui  are  slight.  The  immense 
craters  with  which  the  former  island 
abounds  operate  as  safety-valves,  by 
which  the  pent  gases,  generated  by  the 
vast  subterranean  fires,  escape.  With- 
out them,  the  thin  crusts  of  lava  which 
constitute  the  foundation  of  the  island, 
would  be  rent  asunder,  and  it  would  be- 
come a  terrific  waste.  Shocks  are  indeed 
frequent,  but  without  sufficient  strength 
to  be  very  destructive.  Trees  are  thrown 
down,  rocks  split,  and  the  scene  of  action 
otherwise  affected.  At  Hilo,  in  Novem- 
ber, 1838,  during  the  space  of  eight 
days,  from  forty  to  fifty  shocks  occurred. 
Twelve  distinct  ones  were  counted  in  one 
night.  For  two  days  and  nights  the  earth 
was  in  a  state  of  continual  agitation  ;  the 
plants  and  flowers  trembling  like  fright- 
ened animals.  In  some  cases  the  motion 
was  perpendicular,  like  that  of  a  ship 
pitching,  and  attended  by  noises  and 
sensations  similar  to  those  produced  by 
heavy  waves  striking  against  her  sides, 
and  some  degree  of  nausea  was  felt. 
In  others  the  action  was  lateral,  easy 
and  undulating,  unaccompanied  by  any 
sounds.  In  Aprilr  1841,  several  more 
powerful  shocks  were  experienced  at  the 


10 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


same  place,  one  of  which  was  quite  se- 1 
vere.  The  houses  were  violently  shaken,  | 
and  had  they  not  been  constructed  of 
yielding  materials,  would  have  been  pros- 
trated. The  plastering  was  shattered, 
crockery-ware  destroyed,  milk  thrown 
from  pans,  stone  walls  cast  down,  and 
other  damage  done.  In  March  of  the 
same  year,  several  of  a  severe  nature 
occurred  at  Kailua,  which  threw  down 
much  rock  from  the  pali.  These  shocks 
were  distinctly  felt  throughout  Maui. 

On  the  25th  of  September,  1825,  a 
shower  of  meteoric  stones  occurred  at 
Honolulu.  Reports  like  the  firing  of 
cannon  and  the  repeated  discharges  of 
musketry  were  heard  at  about  ten  o'clock 
in  the  morning.  At  first  the  supposition 
was  that  a  naval  action  was  taking  place 
in  the  immediate  neighborhood ;  but  the 
fall  of  many  fragments  of  rock,  weighing 
from  ten  to  twenty  pounds,  accompanied 
by  a  whizzing  sound,  explained  the  na- 
ture of  the  noises.  They  struck  with 
sufficient  force  to  create  cavities  in  the 
coral  rock,  and  the  pieces  presented  a 
greyish  black  exterior,  with  a  yellowish 
appearance  on  the  fractured  portions. 

A  remarkable  oscillation  of  the  ocean 
>vas  observed  in  1837  throughout  the 
group.  In  1819,  one  on  a  lesser  scale 
and  unattended  with  any  fatal  conse- 
quences occurred.  It  was  considered 
by  the  natives  as  prognosticating  some 
dire  event  to  their  nation,  and  the  death 
of  Kamehameha,  which  took  place  soon 
after,  was  supposed  to  be  the  consumma- 
tion. Upon  its  recurrence  in  1837,  the 
death  of  his  son  Kauikeouli  or  some  high 
chief  was  confidently  predicted ;  but  as 
no  national  calamity  ensued,  this  super- 
stition was  materially  weakened.  On 
the  evening  of  the  7th  of  November,  the 
commotion  of  the  waters  was  first  noticed 
at  Honolulu.  Neither  the  barometer  nor 
thermometer  indicated  any  unusual  at- 
mospherical changes.  At  five  o'clock  it 
was  observed  the  sea  was  retiring.  This 
it  did  with  such  rapidity  as  to  cause 
much  alarm  among  the  foreigners,  who 
were  fearful  its  reaction  would  over- 
whelm the  town,  like  the  great  wave 
which  destroyed  Callao  in  1 746 ;  but  hun- 
dreds of  the  native  population,  thought- 
lessly shouting  and  frolicking,  followed 
its  retreat,  picking  up  the  stranded  fish, 


and  viewing  the  whole  as  a  rare  piece  of 
fun.  Some,  however,  seemed  otherwise 
affected,  and  the  dismal  wail  which  was 
raised  in  the  stillness  of  the  evening, 
earned  the  news  far  inland. 

The  first  recession  was  the  greatest, 
being  more  than  eight  feet;  the  reefs 
were  left  entirely  dry,  and  the  fishes  died. 
The  vessels,  not  in  the  deepest  water, 
grounded ;  but  the  sea  quickly  returned, 
and  in  twenty-eight  minutes  reached  the 
ordinary  height  of  the  highest  tides :  it 
then  commenced  receding  again  and  fell 
six  feet.*  It  rose  a  few  inches  higher 
on  its  third  return  and  fell  six  and  a  half 
feet.  This  action  continued,  with  a 
gradually  diminishing  force  and  extent, 
throughout  that  night  and  the  forenoon 
of  the  ensuing  day.  The  greatest  rapidity 
with  which  it  fell  was  twelve  inches  in 
thirty  seconds. 

On  Hawaii  and  Maui  the  phenomenon 
was  more  powerful  and  occasioned  con- 
siderable loss  of  property  and  lives.  Its 
action  increased  to  the  windward,  the 
northern  sides  of  the  islands  being  the 
most  affected.  At  Maui  the  sea  retired 
about  twenty  fathoms  and  returned  with 
great  speed  in  one  immense  wave,  sweep- 
ing before  it  houses,  trees,  canoes  and 
human  beings.  At  Kahului  the  inhabi- 
tants, as  at  Honolulu,  followed  with  rap- 
turous delight  the  retreating  wave,  when 
suddenly  it  turned  upon  them,  and  rising 
like  a  steep  wall,  rushed  forward  to  the 
shore,  burying  the  natives  in  its  foam 
and  destroying  the  whole  hamlet.  The 
amphibious  character  of  the  islanders 
proved  their  safety,  though  they  were 
obliged  to  mourn  the  loss  of  two  of  their 
number  and  the  destruction  of  all  their 
personal  effects. 

At  Byron's  Bay,  Hawaii,  the  village 
was  crowded  with  people,  who  had  col- 
lected to  attend  a  religious  meeting.  At 
half-past  six  o'clock  the  sea  retired  at 
the  rate  of  five  miles  an  hour,  leaving  a 
great  portion  of  the  harbor  dry,  and 
reducing  the  soundings  in  other  places 
from  five  to  three  and  a  half  fathoms. 
The  wondering  multitude,  in  their  sim- 
plicity, eagerly  rushed  to  the  beach  to 
witness  the  novel  sight ;  quickly  a  gigan- 
tic wave  came  roaring  towards  them  at 
a  speed  of  seven  to  eight  miles  an  hour, 


Hawaiian  Spectator,  vol.  I.,  No  1,  p.  104. 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


11 


and  rising  twenty  feet  above  high-water 
mark,  dashed  upon  the  coast  with  a  stun- 
ning noise  like  a  heavy  crash  of  thunder. 
The  people  were  buried  in  its  flood; 
houses,  canoes,  fish-ponds,  animals,  in 
short,  property  of  all  kinds,  were  mingled 
in  one  common  ruin.  Cries  of  distress 
filled  the  air.  Those  in  the  water  were 
struggling  for  their  lives  amid  the  wreck 
of  houses  or  entangled  among  floating 
timber,  while  their  relatives  who  had  es- 
caped the  torrent,  were  loudly  bewailing 
their  situation.  The  wave  which  had 
rushed  inland  had  in  its  way  dashed  over 
the  deck  of  an  English  whaler  at  anchor 
in  the  bay.  As  soon  as  the  crew  re- 
covered from  the  shock,  they  lowered 
their  boats  and  through  their  exertions 
many  lives  were  saved.  Not  a  canoe 
had  escaped,  and  numbers  of  the  people, 
stunned  and  insensible,  were  floating 
seaward.  The  destruction  of  property 
was  universal ;  even  the  garnered  food 
was  swept  off.  In  two  hamlets  alone, 
sixty-six  habitations  were  destroyed  and 
eleven  lives  lost.  Other  portions  of  the 
sea-coast  suffered  in  like  proportion.  IN  o 
shocks  o(  earthquakes  or  any  tremor 
of  the  earth  were  experienced,  though 
the  action  of  the  crater  of  Kilauea,  the 
night  previous,  was  uncommonly  furious. 
In  some  spots  its  fires  were  quenched  ; 
in  others,  chasms  were  opened  with  vio- 
lent explosions.  It  would  appear  from 
the  simultaneousness  of  the  commotion 
throughout  the  group,  that  it  originated 
at  some  distance.  The  wave  struck  the 
several  islands  from  apparently  the  same 
direction. 

May  17th,  1841,  the  same  scene, 
though  on  a  much  less  violent  scale,  and 
attended  with  no  loss  of  life,  recurred. 
At  twenty  minutes  past  five  o'clock,  P. 
M.,  the  water  in  the  harbor  of  Honolulu 
was  observed  to  be  suddenly  discolored 
and  breaking  like  a  tide  rip.  It  then 
rushed  rapidly  out,  leaving  a  portion  of 
the  harbor  and  all  the  reef  bare.  This 
occurred  twice  in  the  space  of  forty 
minutes,  when  it  resumed  its  ordinary 
appearance.  The  fall  was  estimated  at 
three  feet.  Simultaneously,  at  Lahaina, 
a  distance  of  one  hundred  miles,  the  rise 
and  fall  of  the  water  was  several  feet, 
and  occurred  frequently,  at  intervals  of 
four  minutes  each,  rushing  violently  and 


with  great  noise  over  the  reefs.  At 
about  this  period  a  similar  scene  was 
noticed  on  the  coast  of  Kamschatka. 

An  immense  water-spout  broke  over 
the  harbor  of  Honolulu  in  May,  1809. 
The  atmosphere  was  clear  and  the  day 
calm  when  it  was  first  observed.  A 
heavy,  dark  cloud  hung  o\er  its  body, 
which  appeared  to  be  of  the  size  of  a 
stout  mast.  As  it  advanced,  its  bulk  in- 
creased, until  it  attained  the  thickness 
of  a  hogshead.  Its  progress  was  slow, 
accompanied  with  a  violent  ebullition  of 
the  water  at  its  base.  Upon  touching 
the  reefs,  the  column  broke,  causing  a 
sudden  rise  of  the  sea  of  three  feet  on 
the  beach.  Great  numbers  of  fish  were 
destroyed  by  the  weight  of  the  mass  of 
water  which  fell.  A  few  years  before, 
one  broke  on  the  north  side  of  the  island, 
washed  away  a  number  of  houses,  and 
drowned  several  of  the  inhabitants. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Early  Hawaiian  History — Former  intercourse  between 
the  Hawaiian  Islands  and  the  Tahitian,  Samoan  and 
Marquesan  groups — Superstition  of  "  Youth-renew- 
ing Fountain" — Creation  ot  first  inhabitants — Flood 
—  Origin  of  the  World  — of  Hawaii  — Traditions  — 
Ancient  Hawaiian  Kings  —  Government  —  Common 
Law— Cruelties— Kingly  power— Police— Chiefs— Ret- 
inues— Rank  —  How  derived — Orders  of  nobility  — 
Homage— Public  councils  and  meetings— Conduct  of 
superiors  towards  inferiors  —  Litigation  —  Ordeals  — 
Praying  to  Death — Sorcery— Soothsayers  or  Magi- 
cians— Character  of  Religion — Notions  of  Future  State 
— Hawaiian  Hades— Ideas  in  regard  to  souls— Milu — 
Idols — Different  classes  of  male  and  female— God  Lono 
— Goddess  Pele  and  her  family — Hawaiian  Centaur — 
Fabrication  of  Idols — Temples  or  keiaus — Ceremonies 
attending  consecration — Human  sacrifices— How  ob- 
tained— Animal  and  vegetable  offerings — Diviners — 
Priesthood — Ranks  —  General  character  —  Taxes  of 
priesthood  —  Remarkable  privileges — Taboos — Origin 
and  meaning  of  the  word — Present  application — Pen- 
alties attached  to  violation  of— Cities  of  Refuge— Com- 
parison between  the  religions  and  governments  of  the 
different  groups. 

The  early  history  of  the  Hawaiian 
nation,  like  that  of  all  savages,  derived 
only  through  the  uncertain  medium  of 
oral  traditions,  is  vague,  and  but  slightly 
calculated  to  reward  the  researches  of 
the  curious.  Their  origin  is  involved  in 
an  obscurity,  on  which  their  own  fables, 
and  historical  and  sacred  meles  or  songs, 
are  calculated  to  throw  but  little  light. 
A  certain  uniformity  in  the  earliest  tra- 
ditions and  manners  of  the  most  savage 
nations  exists,  which  would  seem  to  in 
dicate  a  common  origin;  or  it  may  be 


12 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


the  result  of  necessities,  which,  un- 
der like  circumstances,  adopt  the  same 
means  to  effect  corresponding  ends. 
This  may  account  for  customs  of  a  com- 
mon character,  so  frequently  observed  in 
tribes  widely  separated  by  geographical 
limits,  and  without  any  means  of  com- 
munication. The  barrenness  of  the 
savage  intellect  affords  but  partial  scope 
for  observation  and  improvement.  The 
same  idea  or  necessity  which  would  call 
into  existence  certain  forms  or  habits  of 
life  in  one  latitude,  would  equally  arise 
in  another.  Hence,  but  little  confidence 
can  be  placed  in  deductions  founded 
upon  a  conformity  in  a  few  isolated  cus- 
toms, among  different  barbarous  commu- 
nities. But,  when  affinities  of  language, 
physiological  resemblances,  correspond- 
ing manners  and  religious  belief,  and 
more  particularly,  well  established  tra- 
ditions, pointing  to  a  common  origin, 
appear  among  tribes,  which,  in  modern 
times,  have  lost  all  means  of  communi- 
cation, the  inquirer  finds  tenable  grounds 
for  believing  in  a  general  relationship. 
This  appears  to  be  the  case  throughout 
Polynesia.  The  language  spoken  in  the 
groups  so  widely  diffused  over  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  has  the  same  common 
structure,  with  but  such  differences  as 
may  be  resolved  into  dialects ; — the  re- 
sult of  long  non-intercourse; — while 
other  peculiarities  are  to  be  attributed 
to  difference  of  soils,  climates,  govern- 
ments and  other  local  causes.  The 
New  Zealander  and  Hawaiian,  though 
more  than  four  thousand  miles  apart, 
with  all  the  intermediate  tribes,  are 
members  of  one  family,  and  require  but 
a  short  period  to  acquire  the  faculty  of 
a  free  exchange  of  ideas. 

The  fact  that  intercourse  formerly 
existed  between  the  various  groups  is 
tolerably  well  authenticated.  According 
to  traditions,  voyages  were  of  common 
occurrence.  In  those  days  their  canoes 
were  said  to  be  larger  and  better  con- 
structed than  at  present.  From  some 
of  the  circumstances  told  concerning 
them,  it  is  not  improbable  that  they 
were  the  very  boats,  or  proas — perhaps 
of  Malay  origin — which  brought  the 
first  inhabitants  to  Hawaii,  and  which 
continued  to  be  employed  in  keeping  up 
intercourse  with  the  other  groups  as 


long  as  they  were  sea-worthy.  Certain 
it  is  the  frail  canoes  of  modern  times 
are  ill  adapted  to  voyages  of  two  and 
three  thousand  miles.  The  weather  is 
often  very  tempestuous  even  within  the 
influence  of  the  trade  winds.  At  the 
most  favorable  season  canoes  might  per- 
form the  voyage  in  safety,  by  stopping 
at  the  numerous  intervening  coral  islands 
for  rest  and  refreshment.  Still  it  would 
be  more  a  matter  of  accident  than  skill. 
Even  with  better  means  of  conveyance, 
and  no  other  source  of  navigation  than 
their  imperfect  knowledge  of  the  stars, 
it  is  not  to  be  wondered  that  these  voy- 
ages should  have  been  discontinued,  as 
no  traffic  existed  and  curiosity  or  the 
love  of  relatives  were  the  only  impelling 
motives. 

It  is  impossible  to  ascertain  at  what 
period  these  adventurous  voyages  were 
relinquished.  Judging  from  the  indefi- 
niteness  of  the  recollections  concerning 
them,  it  must  have  been  many  ages 
since.  Certain  points  of  depaiture,  as 
the  southern  extremities  of  Kahoolawe 
and  Hawaii,  were  designated  as  the 
"foreign  roads"  In  Hawaiian  meles 
the  names  of  Nuuhiva  and  Tahuata, 
two  islands  of  the  Marquesan  group, 
Upolu  and  Savaii,  of  the  Samoan,  and 
Tahiti  and  others  in  that  neighborhood, 
frequently  appear.  Names  of  head-lands 
and  towns  in  many  of  these  are  also 
common  to  others.  Allusions  are  fre- 
quent to  voyages  made  from  Oahu  and 
Kauai  to  islands  far  west.  Tahiti  or 
Kahiki,  which  are  synonymous,  were 
the  names  most  commonly  known,  and 
appears  to  have  been  the  island  most 
visited.  Popular  opinion  points  to  it  as 
the  source  whence  Hawaii  was  peopled. 
However,  their  ideas  had  become  so 
vague  in  this  respect,  that  it  was  applied 
to  any  foreign  country,  and  to  this  day 
its  actual  signification  answers  to  the 
English  term  "  abroad."  Bolabola,  the 
name  of  an  adjoining  island,  is  usually 
applied  to  Tahiti. 

The  meaning  thus  attached  to  Tahiti 
arose,  no  doubt,  from  the  circumstance, 
that  the  latest  voyages  were  made  there, 
and  after  they  ceased  it  was  the  only 
country  the  knowledge  of  which  re- 
mained among  the  common  people.  The 
names  of  the  others  were  preserved 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


13 


among  the  priests  and  chiefs,  though 
with  an  indistinctness  that  ultimately 
must  have  consigned  them  to  oblivion. 
Even  with  the  advantage  of  written  lan- 
guage, the  knowledge  of  America  was 
lost,  or  but  obscurely  remembered  by 
the  adventurous  Northmen.  Hoopahao- 
hao  was  the  term  used  to  express  a 
different  or  foreign  dialect. 

Few  only  of  the  traditions  relative  to 
the  earliest  history  of  the  islands  are 
worthy  of  recital.  The  first  inhabitants 
are  related  to  have  brought  with  them 
from  Tahiti,  a  hog,  a  dog,  and  a  pair  of 
fowls.  Before  landing,  they  asked  and 
obtained  permission  of  the  gods,  then 
the  sole  denizens  of  this  region,  to  re- 
main. The  arrival  of  a  chief  at  Hawaii 
is  spoken  of,  who  finally  settled  on 
Kauai,  and  sent  for  his  son.  This  son 
it  seems  was  something  of  a  mechanic, 
for  he  improved  upon  the  construction 
of  their  canoes,  or  perhaps  introduced 
the  more  recent  improvements  of  Tahiti. 

Other  voyages  are  spoken  of.  One  of 
these  was  made  by  a  priest,  in  obedience 
to  a  communication  from  his  god,  re- 
vealing to  him  the  existence,  situation, 
and  distance,  of  Tahiti,  with  the  com- 
mand to  proceed  thither.  Obeying  this 
injunction,  he  set  sail  from  Hawaii,  with 
forty  companions,  in  four  double  canoes. 
After  an  absence  of  fifteen  years,  they  re- 
turned and  gave  an  interesting  account 
of  a  country  they  had  visited,  called 
Haupokane,  bordered  with  fine  sandy 
beaches,  abounding  in  shell-fish  and  de- 
licious fruits.  The  inhabitants  were 
comely  and  possessed  much  wealth. 

The  name  of  this  Hawaiian  Columbus 
was  Kamapiikai,  "  a  child  running  over 
the  sea."  He  afterwards  made  three 
voyages  to  the  same  place,  accompanied 
by  numerous  trains  of  followers,  who 
were  tempted  by  his  glowing  description 
of  the  newly  discovered  land,  to  share 
his  fortunes.  As  he  never  returned 
from  the  fourth,  he  is  supposed  to  have 
perished  at  sea. 

The  most  remarkable  feature  of  this 
tale,  is  what  was  related  of  the  wai-ola- 
loa,  "  water  of  enduring  life,"  a  fountain 
or  stream,  said  to  exist  in  the  land  of 
Haupokane.  If  we  may  credit  Kamapii- 
kai,  it  possessed  more  marvelous  proper- 
ties than  even  the  far-farned  "  Fountain 


of  Youth,"  which  Ponce  De  Leon  vainly 
sought  for,  in  Florida,  in  1512.  By 
bathing  in  its  miraculous  waters,  peo- 
ple, however  aged  or  infirm,  deformed 
or  ugly,  maimed  or  diseased,  were  im- 
mediately restored  to  youth,  strength, 
and  beauty.  Such  being  the  reputation 
of  this  stream,  it  is  no  matter  of  sur- 
prise that  Kamapiikai  was  able  to  entice 
numbers  to  brave  with  him  the  dangers 
of  the  ocean.  Report  does  not  say, 
whether  his  crews  were  composed  only 
of  those,  whose  necessities  required 
such  a  bath.  If  they  were,  it  will  more 
readily  account  for  his  final  loss,  than 
his  previous  success,  it  is  not  altogether 
improbable  that  the  Hawaiians  derived 
this  story  from  some  of  their  early 
Spanish  visitors,  who  had  received  it 
from  the  Indians  of  Cuba;  or  it  may 
have  been  a  superstition  common  to 
both  races. 

An  opinion  was  prevalent  that  the  first 
inhabitants  descended  from  the  gods,  or 
were  created  on  the  islands.  But  this 
may  be  referred  to  a  still  earlier  period, 
and  different  locality.  Such  traditions 
being  found  to  exist  among  all  nations, 
they  evidently  point  to  the  common 
origin  of  the  human  species.  Each  na- 
tion, as  it  became  isolated  and  lost  knowl- 
edge of  its  primeval  history,  would  natu- 
rally consider  its  own  territory  as  the 
site  of  the  miraculous  creation,  and 
themselves  as  divinely  descended. 

A  tradition  of  the  flood  likewise  exists, 
which  states  that  all  the  land,  except 
the  summit  of  Mauna  Kea,  was  over- 
flowed by  copious  rains  and  risings  of 
the  waters.  Some  of  the  inhabitants 
preserved  themselves  in  a  "  laau,"  a 
vessel  whose  height,  length  and  breadth 
were  equal,  and  which  was  filled  with 
men,  food  and  animals.  This  "  laau," 
after  floating  awhile,  finally  rested  upon 
Mauna  Kea.  The  waters  then  sub- 
sided and  the  people  went  forth  and 
again  dwelt  in  the  land.  This  flood  is 
called  Kaiakahinalii,  the  great  deluge  of 
Hinalii. 

Their  traditions,  like  those  of  the  He- 
brews, refer  to  a  period  of  perpetual 
night,  or  a  state  of  chaos,  before  the 
world  existed.  Nothing  that  now  is, 
was  then  created,  except  some  of  the 
gods.  The  present  state  was  called  the 


14 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


"  state  of  light,"  and  creation  was  a 
transition  from  darkness  to  light.  Any 
reference  to  existence  from  the  earliest 
time  was  expressed  thus,  "  from  the 
state  of  confusion  or  darkness,  until 
now."  Hawaii  was  said  to  have  been 
produced  from  a  large  egg,  deposited 
by  an  immense  bird  upon  the  water, 
which  bursting,  formed  the  present 
island. 

Maui,  a  superhuman  being  or  god,  is 
said  to  have  laid  his  hand  upon  the  sun, 
and  arrested  its  course,  to  give  his  wife 
time  to  finish  work,  which  she  was 
anxious  to  complete  before  dark.  This 
was  certainly  carrying  gallantry  to  an 
extent  never  dreamed  of  by  the  chivalry 
of  Europe,  accustomed  as  they  were  to 
do  brave  deeds  and  incredible  feats  for 
their  lady  loves.  The  analogy  however 
to  be  observed  in  this  story,  with  the 
miracle  of  Joshua,  is  striking.  Accord- 
ing to  Earnest  Dieffenback  in  his  recent 
travels  in  New  Zealand,  this  Maui  was 
a  being  of  no  little  repute  in  that  coun- 
try, for  to  him  the  natives  attribute  the 
formation  or  fishing  up  of  their  island. 
They  also  derive  their  origin  from  coun- 
tries called  Hawaiki  and  Tawaii,  in 
which  names  that  author  recognizes 
Hawaii  and  Kauai.  Dogs  and  taro  were 
brought  in  the  first  canoes  from  the 
eastward.  As  further  confirmation  of 
his  idea  of  the  Hawaiian  origin  of  the 
New  Zealanders,  he  states  that  shrubs 
and  trees  of  the  same  genus,  though 
differing  in  species,  bear  similar  names 
in  both  countries.* 

The  query,  "  whence  the  Polynesian 
family,"  has  been  much  discussed.  Dr. 
Lang's  "  View  of  the  Origin  and  Migra- 
tion of  the  Polynesian  Nation,"  throws 
some  light  upon  this  perplexing  question. 
There  is  no  difficulty  in  accounting  for 
the  manner  of  peopling  the  islands ;  for 
it  has  been  found  that  frail  canoes  and 
boats,  either  by  accident  or  design,  have 
performed  voyages  of  sufficient  extent 
to  have  arrived  at  the  most  remote  lands 
in  the  Pacific.  Japanese  junks  have 
been  blown  to  sea,  and  finally  stranded 
with  their  occupants  upon  distant  islands, 
and  have  reached  even  the  continent  of 
America,  in  the  46th  degree  of  north 
latitude.  In  December,  1832,  one  was 

~~*  Vol.  H,  p.  88,  et.  seq. 


wrecked  on  Oahu,  after  having  been 
tossed  upon  the  ocean  for  eleven  months. 
But  four,  out  of  a  crew  of  nine,  survived. 
Similar  accidents,  no  doubt,  happened 
centuries  since.  Lord  North's  island,  a 
mere  rock,  of  scarcely  two  miles  circuit, 
and  upwards  of  a  thousand  miles  distant 
from  any  other  land,  has  a  numer- 
ous population,  which  must  have  origin- 
ated from  a  similar  casualty.  Canoes, 
crowded  with  occupants  of  both  sexes, 
are  annually  picked  up  at  sea,  far  away 
from  their  places  of  departure,  and  drift- 
ing about  at  the  mercy  of  the  weather. 
The  continent  of  Asia,  owing  to  the 
numerous  intervening  islands,  affords 
more  facilities  for  reaching  Polynesia  in 
this  manner,  than  America;  though 
stragglers  from  the  latter  have  doubtless 
from  time  to  time  added  to  the  popula- 
tion, and  thus  created  a  mixture  of  cus- 
toms, which,  to  some  extent,  indicate  a 
mixed  origin.  The  probabilities  are  in 
favor  of  Asia,  both  from  affinity  of  lan- 
guage, and  from  striking  resemblances 
in  manners,  idols,  clothing,  and  physical 
conformation.  But  all  conclusions,  with 
the  present  light  upon  this  subject,  must 
necessarily  be  speculative,  and  of  little 
practical  utility.  China  was  known  to 
Egypt  more  than  two  thousand  years 
before  the  birth  of  Christ,  and  a  com- 
mercial intercourse  maintained  between 
the  two  countries.  Africa  was  circum- 
navigated by  the  ancient  Egyptian  mar- 
iners ;  and  among  the  relics  of  their 
high  primary  civilization,  indications  of 
an  acquaintance  with  the  continent  of 
America  are  to  be  traced.  Upon  further 
development  of  the  history  of  the  earliest 
records  of  our  race,  it  may  be  found  that 
the  geography  of  the  world  was  better 
known  than  we  are  at  present  aware  of 
— and  the  peopling  of  isolated  positions 
and  the  migrations  of  nations,  to  have 
been  performed  with  a  definite  knowl- 
edge of  the  general  features  of  the  globe. 
This,  as  well  as  their  purer  forms  of 
faith,  became  obscured  in  the  night  of 
ages,  when  darkness  and  ignorance  set- 
tled upon  the  nations  of  the  earth.  After 
a  lapse  of  four  thousand  years,  glim- 
merings only  of  the  truth  are  revealed, 
in  the  fables  of  a  multitude  of  distinct 
tribes  of  men;  the  general  coincidence 
of  which  points  to  a  common  parentage. 


BISTORT  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


15 


Whatever  may  have  been  the  origin 
of  the  Hawaiians,  we  find  in  their  tra- 
ditions, ground  for  the  belief  that  they 
once  possessed  a  simpler  ritual  and 
purer  ideas  of  divinity  than  when  dis- 
covered by  Cook.  The  ideas  embodied 
in  these  traditions  appear  to  be  the  frag- 
ments of  a  faith  or  teachings  not  unlike 
those  of  the  Hebrews.  Perhaps  like 
theirs,  they  came  down  to  them  from 
primeval  ages,  before  mankind  had  be- 
come wholly  corrupt ;  when  the  sons  of 
God  walked  with  the  children  of  men. 
But  others,  and  particularly  several  cus- 
toms point  to  a  later  period,  when  the 
Israelites  had  become  a  nation  under  the 
ceremonial  law.  Ingenious  minds  may 
find  a  pleasure  in  tracing  the  parallel 
between  customs  and  traditions  of  the 
Hawaiian  race  and  the  ceremonies  and 
scripture  of  the  Jews.  But  it  requires 
further  research  and  more  proof  before 
we  can  adopt  the  conclusion  that  they 
sprung  from  the  lost  ten  tribes. 

Dibble,  in  his  History  of  the  American 
Mission,  favors  this  idea.  He  was  in- 
timately acquainted  with  all  there  was 
to  be  known  concerning  Hawaiian  tra- 
ditionary history  and  customs,  and  has 
succinctly  enumerated  the  parallelisms. 
He  writes  : 

"  It  is  frequently  remarked  that  every  barbarous  na- 
tion has  some  traditions  more  or  less  distinct  of  ancient 
events  narrated  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  some  cus- 
toms and  practices  also  that  indicate  the  common  origin 
of  the  human  race.  The  remark  is  certainly  true  ol  the 
inhabitants  of  these  islands,  and  to  such  an  extent  that 
it  is  not  difficult  to  imagine,  that  the  Hawaiians  are  a 
part  of  the  scattered  tribes  of  the  children  of  Israel. 

"  In  the  regular  division  of  time  and  the  occurrence  of 
sacred  seasons,  at  intervals,  four  times  a  month,  there 
may  be  some  trace  of  an  ancient  weekly  Sabbath.  There 
were  also  yearly  feasts,  and  feasts  of  the  new  moon, 
which  were  observed  with  much  religious  ceremony. 

"  There  is  a  very  ancient  tradition,  dated  back  in  the 
reign  of  Owaia,  the  second  in  genealogy  of  the  Hawaiian 
chiefs,  which  may  be  introduced  here,  as  it  seems  to  bear 
some  trace  of  a  knowledge  formerly  existing,  but  since 
lost,  of  a  superintending  power  above.  The  tradition  is 
of  a  head  having  been  seen  in  the  heavens,  which  looked 
out  of  a  cloud  and  made  the  following  inquiry  :  'Who 
among  the  kings  of  the  earth  has  behaved  well  ? '  The 
men  here  below  replied, '  Kahiko,  one  of  the  kings  of  this 
lower  world,  was  a  most  worthy  personage,  a  wise  man, 
a  priest,  and  an  astrologer,  promoting  the  prosperity  of 
his  laud,  and  the  best  interests  of  his  people.'  The  head 
again  inquired, '  What  earthly  king  has  been  notoriously 
vicious  ? '  Men  responded,  '  His  name  is  Owaia,  an  im- 
pious man,  devoid  of  skill  in  divination  or  in  war,  indif- 
ferent to  the  prosperity  of  the  realms  and  the  happiness 
of  his  subjects.  His  every  thought  is  absorbed  in  sen- 
sual pleasure,  and  the  gratification  of  his  avarice.  He 
exalts  himself  by  trampling  on  his  subjects,  whose  felicity 
he  of  course  tails  to  consult, — in  a  word,  he  pays  no  re- 
sard  to  the  counsels  and  example  of  hia  excellent  father.' 
Then  said  the  voice,  '  It  is  no  wonder,  truly,  that  the 
kingdom  is  driven  to  ruin,  when  he  who  holds  the  reins 
is  a  champion  in  crime.'  Upon  this  the  head  disap- 
peared. 


"  The  tabu  system,  making  sacred  certain  times,  per- 
sons and  places,  and  containing  many  restrictions  and 
prohibitions,  may  easily  be  interpreted  as  a  relic  much 
changed  and  corrupted,  from  the  ancient  ceremonial  ob- 
servances of  the  Jews. 

"  The  Hawaiians  offered  their  first  fruits  to  the  gods. 

"Among  the  Hawaiians,  till  the  arrival  of  the  mission- 
aries, the  practice  of  circumcision  was  common.  The 
act  was  attended  with  religious  ceremonies  and  performed 
by  a  priest.  An  uncircumcised  person  was  considered 
mean  and  despicable.  The  practice  did  not  cease  till 
formally  prohibited  by  Kaahumanu. 

"Every  person  and  thing  that  touched  a  dead  body 
was  considered  unclean,  and  continued  so  a  certain  sea- 
son, and  till  purified  by  religious  ceremonies. 

"  Females  after  child-birth  and  after  other  periods  of 
infirmity,  were  enjoined  strict  separation,  and  were  sub- 
jected to  ceremonies  of  purification  similar  to  those  of 
the  Jews,  on  penalty  of  death. 

"  The  Hawaiians  had  cities  of  refuge  for  the  same  pur- 
pose and  under  similar  regulations  with  those  of  the 
Jews. 

"Hawaiian  tradition  says  that  man  was  originally 
made  of  the  dust  of  the  earth  by  Kane  and  Kanaloa,  two 
of  their  principal  deities. 

"They  have  tho  tradition  of  one  Waikelenuiaiku,  an 
abridged  story  of  whom  I  will  here  introduce,  that  the 
reader  may  judge  for  himself  how  much  it  resembles  the 
history  of  Joseph : 

"  Waikelenuiaiku  was  one  of  ten  brethren,  who  had 
one  sister.  They  were  all  the  children  of  one  father 
whose  name  was  Waiku.  Waikelenuiaiku  was  much  be- 
loved by  his  father,  but  his  brethren  hated  him.  On  ac- 
count of  their  hatred  they  carried  him  and  cast  him  into 
a  pit  belonging  to  Holonaeole.  The  oldest  brother  had 
pity  on  him  and  gave  charge  to  Holonaeole  to  lake  good 
care  of  him. 

"  Waikelenuiaiku  escaped  and  fled  to  a  country  over 
which  reigned  a  king  whose  name  was  Kamohoalii. 
There  he  was  thrown  into  a  dark  place,  a  pit  under 
ground,  In  which  many  persons  were  confined  for  various 
crimes. 

"  Whilst  Waikelenuiaiku  was  confined  in  this  dark 
place,  he  told  his  companions  to  dream  dreams  and  tell 
them  to  him.  The  night  following  four  of  the  prisoners 
had  dreams.  The  first  dreamed  that  he  saw  a  ripe  ohin 
(native  apple)  and  his  spirit  ate  it ;  the  second  dreamed 
that  he  saw  a  ripe  banana  and  his  spirit  ate  it ;  the  third 
dreamed  that  lie  saw  a  hog  and  his  spirit  ate  it ;  and  the 
fourth  dreamed  that  he  saw  awa,  (a  native  herb  produc- 
ing intoxicating  liquor,)  pressed  out  the  juice,  and  his 
spirit  drank  it.  The  three  first  dreams  (those  pertaining 
to  food)  Waikelenuiaiku  interpreted  unfavorably  and  told 
the  dreamers  that  they  must  prepare  to  die.  The  fourth 
dream  (that  pertaining  to  drink)  he  interpreted  to  signify 
deliverance  and  life. 

"  The  three  first  dreamers  were  slain  according  to  the 
interpretation  and  the  fourth  was  delivered  and  saved. 

"Afterwards,  this  last  dreamer  told  Kamohoalii  the 
king  of  the  land  how  wonderful  was  the  skill  of  Waikele- 
nuiaiku in  interpreting  dreams,  and  the  king  sent  and 
delivered  him  from  prison  and  made  him  a  principal 
chief  in  his  kingdom. 

"  They  have  a  tradition  of  a  certain  person  who  wa* 
swallowed  by  a  fish  and  afterwards  cast  out  upon  dry 
land,— which  may  be  referred  to  the  history  of  Jonah. 

"It  may  be  added,  that  the  poetry  of  the  Hawaiians 
bears  a  greater  resemblance  to  that  of  the  Hebrews  than 
to  any  other,  that  the  structure  of  the  two  languages  is 
very  similar,  and  especially  that  the  causative  form  of 
the  Hawaiian  verb  is  precisely  the  same  with  the  Hiphil 
of  the  Hebrew.  Very  few  words  however  can  be  found 
in  the  two  languages  that  resemble  each  other."— pp. 
26-28. 

A  genealogy  of  the  kings  of  Hawaii 
and  their  wives,  exists  from  a  period 
long  antecedent  to  1778,  though  but  few 
facts  of  an  interesting  nature  have  been 
preserved.  Kahiko,  (ancient,)  the  first 
man  and  Kupulanakahau,  the  first  wo- 
man, gave  birth  to  a  son,  called  Wakea. 
Among  the  first  settlers  from  abroad 


16 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


were  Kukalaniehu,  and  his  wife  Kaku- 
laua,  whose  daughter  married  Wakea. 
This  couple  became  the  progenitors  of 
the  whole  Hawaiian  race.  The  names 
of  seventy-seven  generations  of  kings 
have  been  preserved  in  their  historical 
meles,  from  the  last  of  whom  Kame- 
hnmeha  claimed  descent.  Many  mar- 
velous and  absurd  things  are  related  of 
these  men  and  their  consorts.  Papa 
was  believed  to  be  the  mother  of  the 
islands,  and  to  have  created  the  kalo 
plant,  by  planting  a  deformed  child, 
from  which  it  grew.  In  the  history  of 
Papa  is  found  the  eastern  idea  of  trans- 
migration of  souls,  as  she  is  said  to  have 
inhabited  different  bodies  by  passing 
from  one  to  another. 

Kana  was  a  famous  warrior,  and  of 
him  marvelous  deeds  are  told.  He  was 
so  tall  that  he  could  wade  the  ocean, 
and,  colossus-like,  stand  with  one  foot 
upon  Oahu  and  the  other  upon  Kauai, 
seventy  miles  apart.  On  one  occasion, 
the  Hawaiians  gave  offence  to  the  king 
of  Tahiti,  who,  in  revenge,  deprived 
them  of  the  sun.  Kana,  disliking  the 
darkness,  walked  through  the  sea  to 
Tahiti,  where  the  maker  of  the  sun, 
Kahoaalii,  lived.  Having  obtained  it, 
he  returned  and  placed  it  where  it  still 
remains.  But  stories  like  these,  origin- 
ating in  the  imaginations  of  the  bards, 
or  superstitions  of  the  people,  have 
neither  interest  nor  value.  Those  given 
are  a  specimen  of  the  better  class.  As 
a  whole,  they  are  characterized  by  won- 
der and  absurdity,  from  which  it  seems 
impossible  to  extract  any  truth  worth 
preserving.  In  their  mental  twilight  the 
past  assumed  a  dim  and  undefined  ap- 
pearance, and  was  filled  with  vague 
shadows  which  became  more  hideous 
and  disproportioned  as  their  night  drew 
on.  The  lives  of  the  rulers  were  stained 
with  the  usual  crimes  of  heathenism, 
and  occupied  with  wars  and  dissensions. 
But  one,  Luamuo,  retained  his  power 
and  died  a  natural  death.  This  was 
justly  considered  as  a  reward  for  his 
extraordinary  virtue.  Another,  by  the 
name  of  Puiakalani,  becoming  disgusted 
with  the  continued  dissensions  among 
his  subjects,  which  he  was  called  on  to 
adjust,  resigned  his  power,  saying  to  the 
people,  "  I  am  tired  of  ruling  over  the 


land,  and  will  no  longer  have  care  of  it. 
It  will  be  better  for  you,  my  subjects,  to 
look  after  your  own  lands  in  a  way  to  suit 
yourselves ;  while  I  take  care  of  my  own.'' 
The  land  soon  fell  into  great  confusion, 
and  the  people  petitioned  their  prince 
to  resume  his  former  station,  which  he 
consented  to  with  the  proviso  of  ad- 
ditional power.  To  him  is  attributed 
the  originating  of  the  feudal  principle, 
that  the  whole  country  belonged  exclu- 
sively to  the  king.  From  his  time,  all 
lands  were  held  in  fief.  The  great 
increase  of  tyranny  arose  from  the  con- 
sideration given  to  the  martial  profes- 
sion. The  most  illustrious  warriors, 
dreaded  from  their  prowess  and  cruelty, 
were  esteemed  as  superior  beings,  and 
sought  after  as  leaders  in  their  petty 
skirmishes  for  territory  or  plunder.  In 
this  manner,  despotic  power  soon  be- 
came the  inheritance  of  the  warlike 
chiefs ;  as  for  the  people,  they  ceased 
to  exist  except  as  serfs,  apportioned  out 
with  their  lands  to  the  favorites  or  de- 
pendents of  the  conquerors.  New  and 
more  rigorous  laws  were  enforced,  until 
every  vestige  of  former  liberty  was  ex- 
tinguished. 

It  is  probable  that  the  political  condi- 
tion of  the  country,  during  this  period, 
was  much  the  same  as  when  first  visited 
by  Captain  Cook :  wars  and  famine, 
peace  and  plenty,  alternating  according 
to  the  dispositions  of  the  ruling  princes. 
The  prevalence  of  such  a  system  must 
effectually  have  checked  mental  or  phy- 
sical advancement. 

Before  the  conquest  of  Kamehameha, 
the  several  islands  were  ruled  by  inde- 
pendent kings,  who  were  frequently  at 
war  with  each  other,  but  more  often 
with  their  own  subjects.  As  one  chief 
acquired  sufficient  strength,  he  disputed 
the  title  of  the  reigning  prince  ;  if  suc- 
cessful, his  chance  of  permanent  power 
was  quite  as  precarious  as  that  of  his 
predecessor.  In  some  instances  the  title 
established  by  force  of  arms  remained 
in  the  same  family  for  several  genera- 
tions, disturbed,  however,  by  frequent 
rebellions.  The  rich  valleys  were 
claimed  by  separate  tribes,  whose  prin- 
cipal occupation  was  to  prey  upon  their 
neighbors ;  the  highlands  were  arrayed 
against  the  lowlands ;  robbers  infested 


HISTORY   OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ItiLAXLS. 


17 


all  tlie  public  paths,  or  lurked  amid  the 
recesses  of  the  forest.  The  smallest 
trifle  of  property  was  a  sufficient  tempta- 
tion to  murder ;  and  no  individual  was 
safe  away  from  the  immediate  precincts  j 
of  his  own  village.  The  traveler  of  the 
present  day  hears  from  the  lips  of  their 
descendants  many  a  tale  of  horror,  as 
they  direct  his  notice  to  the  haunts  of 
these  men  of  blood  and  lust.  These 
dark  features  will  however  be  found  to 
be  relieved  by  lighter  shades,  when  the 
general  character  of  the  ancient  govern- 
ment is  explained. 

It  was  a  complete  despotism,  modified, 
to  some  extent,  by  certain  customs  or 
regulations,    which   had    been   promul- 
gated in  the  early  periods  of  their  his- 
tory,  by  the    high    chiefs,  and    which, 
from  their  general  usefulness  and  an- 
tiquity, were  considered  in  the  light  of 
a  traditionary  code.    These  related  prin- 
cipally to  the  tenure  of  lands,  personal 
security,  right  of  property  and  barter. 
Such  was  the  force  of  public  sentiment 
upon  these  subjects,  that  the  chiefs  hesi- 
tated to  violate  the  spirit  of  their  mean- 
ing.    By  them  the  amount  of  taxes  or  | 
labor  due  the  chiefs  from  their  depend- 
ants, and  his  duties  to  them,  were,  to 
some  extent,  regulated.     This  species  of 
common  law  was  particularly  binding  in 
regard   to  the   means   of  irrigation,  on 
which  the  whole  value  of  their  crops  de- 1 
pended.     It  regulated,  for  each  planta- 
tion, the  amount  of  water  which  varies 
according  to  the  dryness  of  the  season. 
In  barter,  no  bargain  was  considered  as 
binding  until  the  articles  were  exchanged 
and  both  parties  expressed  themselves  j 
satisfied ;    after   which,    no   withdrawal  i 
was  permitted,  whatever  might  be  the  ! 
consequence.     A  common   practice   ex-  j 
isted  of  paying  workmen  in  advance,  j 
Should  they  then  refuse  to  perform  the  ! 
stipulated  work,  their  property  was  seiz-  j 
ed  and  their  plantations  destroyed.     In  j 
criminal   cases,  the    law    of  retaliation ' 
prevailed,    except    toward    their   imme- 
diate   chiefs,    who    could    commit   any 
trespass,  or  even  murder,  at  their  option.  j 
In  other  cases,  the  injured  party  retali- 
ated to  the  extent  of  their  desires,  un- 
less they  were  too  weak — in  which  event, 
an  appeal  to  the  king,  or  the  chief  of 
the  district,  ensured  some  light  punish-  i 
3 


ment  to  the  offender.  Life  was  held  in 
no  great  estimation,  for  murder  was 
punished  simply  by  banishment.  Theft 
was  more  severely  dealt  with;  those 
who  had  suffered  in  their  houses  or 
farms,  repaired  to  the  property  of  the 
guilty  party,  even  if  they  were  the 
strongest,  and  seized  upon  every  avail- 
able article.  Whether  there  was  any- 
thing approaching  the  form  of  a  trial  to 
prove  the  guilty  party  does  not  appear. 
Public  opinion  was  however  so  fixed  on 
this  subject,  that  the  whole  people  would 
sustain  those  who  thus  desired  to  obtain 
redress.  This  species  of  les  fallout* 
seems  in  no  way  calculated  to  have  im- 
proved their  morals,  though  perhaps 
suited  to  their  circumstances.  In  their 
social  relations  the  greatest  hospitality 
prevailed.  So  freely  were  gifts  bestow- 
ed, that  almost  a  community  of  property 
existed  ;  and  no  man  would  refuse  food 
to  his  bitterest  enemy,  should  he  enter 
his  house.  Thus  the  temptation  to  theft 
was  much  diminished,  and  the  heinous- 
ness  of  the  offence  aggravated.  If  a 
robbery  were  committed  on  the  property 
of  a  high  chief,  the  offender  was  some- 
times bound  hand  and  foot,  placed  in  a 
decayed  canoe,  and  committed  to  the 
waters,  to  await  a  lingering  death. 

Such  were  the  nature  of  some  of  their 
regulations,  which,  while  they  tended, 
to  some  extent,  to  create  a  security  of 
property  and  person  among  the  common 
people,  in  their  transactions  with  each 
other,  afforded  but  little  safety  against 
oppression  on  the  part  of  their  chiefs. 
The  king  could  dispense  with  any  of 
them,  and  the  chiefs  likewise — though 
an  appeal  to  the  king  afforded  some  se- 
curity against  this  latter  abuse.  The 
will  of  the  monarch  constituted  the  su- 
preme law ;  consequently,  the  govern- 
ment partook  of  his  personal  character, 
being  more  or  less  arbitrary,  according 
to  his  disposition.  The  general  char- 
acter of  the  chiefs,  as  might  be  expected, 
was  such  as  despotic  power,  engrafted 
upon  savage  dispositions  and  sensual 
appetites,  would  be  calculated  to  pro- 
duce. 

Kumalai,  an  ancient  king  of  Maui,  is 
noted  in  their  annals  for  his  oppression, 
and  his  memory  is  still  preserved  among 
the  people,  on  account  of  a  road  of  fiat 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


stones  which  he  caused  to  be  made 
around  the  island,  part  of  which  exists 
to  this  day.  Another  of  these  Caligulas, 
whose  memory  was  universally  exe- 
crated, was  Huakau,  a  king  of  Hawaii. 
His  disposition  was  so  malicious,  that  if 
he  saw  the  leg  of  a  man  more  handsome- 
ly tatooed  than  his  own,  he  immediately 
ordered  it  cut  off.  A  good  looking  face 
or  handsome  hair,  if  unfortunate  enough 
to  attract  his  attention,  were  sufficient 
to  cause  the  possessor  to  be  beheaded ; 
the  bleeding  head  was  brought  to  him, 
to  be  mangled  and  hacked  in  a  most 
wanton  manner.  He  was  finally  slain, 
in  a  conspiracy,  by  Umi,  a  rival  king, 
and  two  aged  men,  whom  he  had  abused. 

The  kingly  authority  extended  over 
life,  liberty  and  property.  It  was  fre- 
quently delegated  to  the  governors  of 
the  islands,  or  great  districts,  and  from 
them  to  inferior  officers.  No  chief  could 
interfere  with  the  tenant  of  another,  and 
should  he  desire  revenge  or  justice,  it 
could  only  be  obtained  through  the  legit- 
imate lord,  unless  he  chose  to  risk  a 
contest.  The  greatest  safeguard  of  the 
people  consisted  in  the  self-interest  of 
their  masters,  whose  wealth  and  power 
depended  chiefly  on  the  number  of  their 
bondmen.  The  king  was  chief  magis- 
trate, and  the  ultimate  source  of  appeal. 

No  regular  police  existed.  The  im- 
mediate attendants  of  the  chiefs  executed 
their  orders.  These  attendants  were 
very  numerous,  every  person  of  rank 
being  supplied  according  to  his  grade. 
A  certain  number  were  bosom  friends, 
who  always  remained  privileged  idlers 
about  the  persons  of  their  lords,  having 
no  voice  in  political  affairs,  but  living 
upon  his  revenues  :  the  others  held  dif- 
ferent offices  in  the  household,  more  or 
less  menial,  and  constituted  a  perma- 
nent establishment.  Among  them  were 
"pipe  lighters,"  "spittoon  carriers,"  "ka- 
hili bearers,"  "  executioners,"  "  purloin- 
ers,';  "  assassins,"  "  cooks,"  &c. 

These  retinues  were  formed  immedi- 
ately upon  the  birth  of  a  chief  of  either 
sex,  and  were  designated  by  titles,  gen- 
erally of  a  whimsical  character,  as  "the 
fragments,"  " musquitoes,"  "umbrellas," 
&c.  The  care  of  the  children  devolved 
upon  kahuS)  or  nurses,  who  assumed  the 
sole  direction,  until  the  child  was  capa- 


{  ble  of  exercising  its  own  will ;  a  period 
which,  as  no  contradiction  to  its  caprices 
was  allowed,  soon  arrived. 

Kank  was  hereditary,  and  descended 
chiefly  from  the  females,  who  frequently 
held  the  reins  of  government  in  their 
own  right.  This  custom  originated  in 
the  great  license  existing  between  the 
sexes ;  no  child,  with  certainty,  being 
able  to  designate  his  father,  while  no 
mistake  could  be  made  in  regard  to  the 
mother. 

Three  distinct  orders  of  nobles  exist- 
ed. The  first  embraced  the  kings, 
queens,  and  all  branches  of  the  royal 
family.  It  also  included  the  chief  ad- 
visers, or  counselors,  though  of  inferior 
birth.  Governors,  or  chiefs  of  large 
districts,  were  included  in  the  second, 
and  the  third  embraced  the  lords  of  vil- 
lages, priests,  and  those  who  held  es- 
tates, by  payment  of  regular  taxes, 
which  were  raised  by  their  own  depend- 
ants, or  those  to  whom  they  farmed 
lands. 

Servile  homage  was  paid  to  superiors, 
particularly  to  priests  and  chiefs  of  the 
highest  rank.  Neither  their  persons 
could  be  touched,  nor  their  houses  en- 
tered, without  permission.  All  must 
prostrate  themselves  when  they  appear- 
ed. Death  was  the  penalty  of  the  slight- 
est infringement  of  any  degree  of  eti- 
quette which  the  law  required  to  be 
exercised  towards  them,  or  their  rites. 
The  people  were  attached  to  the  soil, 
and  transferred  with  the  land,  like  the 
serfs  of  modern  times.  They  had  no 
voice  in  the  government.  The  advice 
of  the  principal  chiefs  was  taken  in  mat- 
ters of  importance  by  the  king,  though  he 
was  responsible  to  no  one.  No  regular 
council  existed,  but  the  political  delib- 
erations were  conducted  with  consider- 
able diplomatic  skill  and  secrecy.  The 
results  were  promulgated  to  the  people 
by  heralds  and  messengers,  whose  offices 
were  hereditary,  and  considered  highly 
honorable. 

Public  meetings  for  discussing  nation- 
al affairs  were  sometimes  held.  Pro- 
fessed orators  and  counselors,  whose 
offices  were  also  hereditary,  spoke  on 
these  occasions,  and  with  a  degree  of 
natural  eloquence,  not  uncommon  amon^ 
savages. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


19 


Among  the  chiefs  a  considerable  de- 
gree of  courtesy  prevailed,  with  a  re- 
finement of  language  and  demeanor 
which  betokened  conscious  rank.  Per- 
haps in  nothing  else  was  the  exclusive- 
ness  of  the  aristocracy  so  strongly  char- 
acterized. In  every  department  of  life 
a  distinction  was  made,  as  if  contact 
with  the  serfs,  by  touch,  use  of  the  same 
articles,  houses, "food  or  bathing  places, 
would  produce  contamination.  From 
such  rules  and  deportment,  so  great  a 
physical  difference  arose,  that  super- 
ficial observers  have  considered  the  two 
as  distinct  races.  To  carry  this  dis- 
tinction to  its  farthest  limit,  the  chiefs 
formed  a  conventional  dialect,  or  court 
language,  understood  only  among  them- 
selves, if  any  of  its  terms  became 
known  by  the  lower  orders,  they  were 
immediately  discarded  and  others  sub- 
stituted. Towards  the  common  people 
the  chiefs  conducted  themselves  most 
oppressively.  Respect  to  their  persons 
or  property  was  unknown,  when  in  con- 
flict with  the  whims  or  desires  of  a  su- 
perior. Their  security  lay  in  avoiding 
them.  To  use  the  expressive  language 
of  modern  Hawaiians,  "  their  restric- 
tions were  like  the  poisoned  tooth  of  a 
reptile."  If  a  common  man  made  use  of 
any  consecrated  property  belonging  to  a 
chief ;  or  if  a  man  walked  in  the  shade 
of  the  house  of  a  chief,  with  his  head 
besmeared  with  clay,  or  with  a  wreath 
about  it,  with  it  wet,  or  wearing  a 
X* /'/;,/-/, — a  kapa  mantle, — or  violated  any 
one  of  numerous  other  regulations, 
equally  whimsical  and  absurd,  his  life 
was  the  forfeit.  At  sea,  if  their  canoes 
interrupted  their  progress,  they  were 
overturned ;  on  land,  if  the  shadow  of 
an  individual  fell  upon  the  king,  or  he 
did  not  prostrate  himself  when  anything 
was  carried  to  or  from  him.  the  punish- 
ment was  death.  This  was  also  the 
case,  should  any  one  place  his  hand 
upon  his  head,  or  be  found  in  a  more 
elevated  position.  To  render  this  sys- 
tem more  unjust  and  cruel,  if  it  were 
possible,  its  laws  were  of  the  most  varied 
and  uncertain  nature,  emanating  fre- 
quently from  sheer  caprice,  ignorance 
or  innocence  were  equally  unsafe,  jus- 
tice and  humanity  being  of  slight  con- 
sideration ;  though,  as  before  remarked, 


the  personal  disposition  of  the  sovereign 
greatly  affected  the  whole  system  of 
government.  The  humane  character  of 
the  few  could  afford  but  slight  relief 
from  the  cruel  and  capricious  desires  of 
the  many.  Priestcraft  lent  all  its  ad- 
ventitious aids  to  support  this  system, 
from  which  it  derived  its  own  existence. 
But  two  classes  existed,  the  oppressor 
and  oppressed, — those  who  labored,  and 
those  who  reaped.  Lands  were  held  in 
fief.  The  great  landlords  derived  them 
direct  from  the  king,  and  in  turn  sub- 
divided them  among  their  followers,  the 
inferior  tenants  being  apportioned  with 
the  soil.  The  slightest  failure  of  duty 
from  one  class  to  its  immediate  superior, 
was  followed  by  dispossession.  It  was 
on  the  great  chiefs  that  the  king  relied 
for  military  support,  which  they  gladly 
rendered  him  as  the  title  by  which  they 
retained  their  possessions.  Not  unfre- 
quently  lands  were  divided  out  to  the 
seventh  degree,  and  it  is  owing  to  this 
system  that,  now  as  the  rights  of  each 
begin  to  be  acknowledged,  so  much  con- 
fusion in  titles  has  arisen.  Tenant, 
landlord,  chief  and  king  have  each  an 
interest  in  the  same  spot.  Then,  how- 
ever, such  matters  were  easily  adjusted. 
The  strongest  took  it.  Nor  more  than 
one-third  of  the  laborer's  industry  ever 
benefited  him.  The  other  two-thirds 
went  in  taxes,  rents  and  exactions  to 
his  chiefs  and  to  the  king.  Worse  than 
this,  his  own  third  was  never  safe  from 
some  unforeseen  exaction.  If  his  lands 
were  flourishing  and  a  stock  of  hogs  or 
poultry  repaid  his  care,  they  were  never 
secure  from  the  covetous  eyes  of  a  su- 
perior. The  decree  had  but  to  go  forth, 
and  house,  farm  and  all  that  his  labor 
had  made  his,  passed  irrevocably  into 
the  hands  of  another.  Even  when  the 
good  nature  of  one  class  of  chiefs  ren- 
dered the  peasant's  property  compara- 
tively secure,  no  reliance  could  be 
placed  on  its  continuance.  The  death 
of  a  king  or  landlord,  or  even  a  new 
favoritism,  caprice,  or  the  most  trivial 
motive,  sufficed  to  produce  a  change  of 
masters  throughout.  Thus  one  moment 
was  no  security  against  the  next.  Not 
to  be  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  one  man. 
tenants  were  desirous  of  securing  small 
patches  under  several  chiefs,  so  that 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


when  plundered  by  one  they  could  re- 
pair to  another.  This  system  was  an 
effectual  bar  to  general  improvements 
and  the  acquisition  of  property  by  the 
mass.  It  may  account  somewhat  for 
their  profuse  hospitality,  by  leading 
every  man  the  more  willingly  to  bestow 
upon  his  neighbor,  what  he  felt  but 
slight  rights  of  property  to  in  himself; 
for  food,  even  when  prepared  for  the  fam- 
ily meal,  was  no  exception  to  a  chiefs 
rapacity.  Beside  this  lion's  right  to 
property?  the  chief  or  king  could  assess 
labor  upon  the  entire  community,  when 
and  how  he  pleased. 

In  cases  of  litigation,  some  appear- 
ance of  judicial  forms  was  preserved. 
Both  parties  were  generally  summoned 
before  the  king  or  chief  and  heard  be- 
fore judgment  was  pronounced,  the  ex- 
ecution of  which  was  prompt.  Ordi- 
narily, cases  were  left  to  the  priests, 
whose  examinations  appealed  rather  to 
the  superstitious  fears  of  the  real  or 
fancied  criminal,  than  to  any  direct  evi- 
dences of  guilt.  Ordeals  of  a  singular 
nature  were  practiced.  One  was  the 
-;  ii-n'i  ]i<wlulu"  shaking  water,  a  large 
dish  of  which  was  placed  before  the 
culprit,  while  a  prayer  was  offered  by 
the  priest.  Both  hands  were  required 
to  be  held  over  the  fluid,  the  priest  gaz- 
ing steadfastly  upon  it.  If  the  water 
shook,  an  event,  by  a  little  legerdemain, 
very  likely  to  occur,  the  fate  of  the  vic- 
tim was  sealed. 

The  delusion  of  "  praying  to  death  " 
exercised  a  powerful  influence  over  their 
minds.  Chiefs  and  common  people  alike 
felt  its  force,  though  the  former,  it  is  to 
be  supposed,  seldom  came  under  its 
baneful  operation.  Even  to  this  day 
this  superstition  exists,  though  rapidly 
wearing  away.  Like  the  remembrance 
of  goblin  tales,  the  fear  remains  after 
the  faith  is  destroyed.  As  a  powerful 
engine  of  government  and  priesthood,  it 
was  deprecated  equally  by  the  innocent 
as  by  the  guilty. 

Sorcery  and  witchcraft  were  also  ex- 
tensively practiced,  and  exerted  a  power 
not  inferior  to  the  above,  which  may  be 
considered  as  a  kindred  practice,  de- 
pending for  its  success  upon  the  same 
credulity  and  ignorance.  Kilo  was  the 
term  applied  to  the  class  that  predicted 


future  events,  from  the  appearances  of 
the  heavens,  crowing  of  cocks,  or  bark- 
ing of  dogs.  It  was  analogous,  and 
perhaps  co-eval  with  the  practice  of 
soothsaying  among  the  more  polished 
nations  of  antiquity.  The  professors  of 
practices  so  fatal  to  the  people  were  re- 
garded with  great  aversion,  and  seldom 
came  to  a  natural  end.  Indeed  they 
were  looked  upon  rather  as  bad  spirits 
than  appertaining  to  the  human  race. 

The  priests  were  frequently  called 
upon  to  detect  those  guilty  of  theft. 
The  complainant  was  required  to  pay  a 
fee,  generally  a  pig,  in  advance.  The 
following  ceremonies  were  then  enacted. 
Two  sticks  of  green  wood  were  rubbed 
together,  until  the  friction  produced  a 
kind  of  powder,  resembling  snuff,  suf- 
ficiently hot,  upon  being  blown  upon,  to 
kindle  dry  grass  into  a  flame.  This 
was  used  to  fire  a  pile  of  wood.  Three 
kukui  nuts  were  then  broken,  arid  one  of 
the  kernels  thrown  into  the  fire.  While 
this  was  burning,  a  prayer  was  uttered, 
accompanied  with  an  anathema,  "  to  kill 
the  fellow."  The  same  ceremony  was 
repeated  until  the  nuts  were  consumed, 
unless  the  thief  appeared  and  made  res- 
titution, which  generally  happened.  The 
offence  was  then  punished  with  a  heavy 
fine.  Should  the  culprit  have  neglected, 
to  appear,  his  fate  was  considered  as 
inevitable.  A  proclamation  was  made 
throughout  the  island  by  the  king,  that 
theft  had  been  committed  and  the  guilty 
prayed  to  death.  So  firm  was  their  be- 
lief in  the  power  of  these  prayers  to 
arouse  the  avenging  deity,  that  the  mis- 
erable victim  generally  pined  away  and 
fell  a  sacrifice  to  his  fears.  When  we 
!  consider  the  powerful  influence  which 
!  the  church  of  Rome  exercised  over  those 
!  who  acknowledged  her  authority,  throw- 
I  ing,  by  her  paper  interdicts,  a  whole 
j  kingdom  into  a  state  of  distress,  scarcely 
;  conceivable  in  modern  times,  we  find 
little  to  excite  wonder  in  the  "  praying 
i  to  death  "  of  the  untutored  savage. 

No  spirit  of  benevolence  pervaded 
their  religion.  It  was  a  gloomy  and 
fearful  system,  abounding  in  punish- 
ments for  the  present  life  and  dark 
threatenings  for  the  future.  Among  the 
I  lowest  orders  no  distinct  idea  of  futurity 
prevailed.  A  general  opinion  that  there 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


21 


was  a  future  state  existed,  and  with  it 
vague  expectances  of  rewards  and  pun- 
ishments. In  their  corrupted  minds  the 
simple  truth  of  one  all-creative  power, 
the  "  Great  Spirit "  of  the  American  In- 
dians, had  no  being.  Their  traditions 
referred  to  the  creation  of  the  world,  and 
the  deluge  ;  but  even  then,  according  to 
their  ideas,  a  multiplicity  of  gods  exist- 
ed. The  knowledge  of  the  true  God 
was  lost  among  many  families  soon  after 
the  world  became  peopled ;  else  was 
buried  amid  a  mass  of  superstitions  and 
heathen  ceremonies,  which  each  suc- 
cessive generation  increased.  This  was 
emphatically  the  case  with  the  Hawai- 
ians.  However  simple  their  faith  orig- 
inally had  been,  almost  all  traces  of  truth 
were  lost  at  their  discovery.  Every 
age  had  become  more  corrupt,  and,  at 
that  date,  the  cup  of  heathenism  was  full. 
Savage  rites  and  blood-loving  deities,  a 
cruel  priesthood  and  rapacious  govern- 
ments, inhuman  faiths  and  absurd  super- 
stitions, were  the  burdens  which  the 
people  were  required  to  believe  and  sus- 
tain. From  the  perusal  of  the  stories 
of  this  dark  era,  as  gathered  from  their 
own  lips,  it  would  seem  as  if  human  de- 
pravity had  reached  its  acme,  and  that 
the  people  were  gradually  wasting  away, 
like  a  mass  of  corruption.  A  religion 
which  inculcates  some  degree  of  moral- 
ity, however  small,  or  allows  latitude  for 
the  better  principles  of  humanity,  even 
if  choked  and  almost  destroyed  by  sur- 
rounding depravity,  will  exert  an  influ- 
ence sufficient  to  tempei  the  general 
evil.  This  was  the  case  with  the  Bud- 
dhistic creed  and  the  simple  faith  of  the 
ancient  Peruvians.  But  here  no  such 
light  prevailed.  The  system  had  de- 
generated into  unmixed  evil,  and  the 
good,  like  that  derived  from  government, 
was  the  result  of  individual  action. 
Fortunately  for  humanity,  the  most  bar- 
barous beliefs  will,  at  times,  yield  to  the 
natural  instincts  of  man  ;  and  faiths, 
however  cruel  m  theory,  often  become 
comparatively  mild  in  their  application. 
The  religion  of  the  Hawaiians,  as  it 
existed  when  they  became  known  to  the 
civilized  world,  incorporated  no  abstract 
principles  of  belief.  It  was  rather  a 
system  of  worldly  despotism,  better  cal- 
culated to  perpetuate  the  power  of  the 


priests,  than  to  direct  the  ideas  of  the 
people  to  concerns  of  eternal  interest  or 
temporal  improvement.  Deities,  cere- 
monies and  restrictions,  had  been  in- 
definitely multiplied  till  it  presented  a 
confused  mass  of  dark  superstitions, 
based  upon  the  slavish  fear  and  igno- 
rance of  the  people. 

The  contradictory  ideas  that  prevailed 
in  regard  to  a  future  state,  attest  the 
indefmiteness  of  their  belief  on  this 
point.  Their  revelations  were  derived 
from  dreams  and  pretended  visions  of 
the  priests.  By  some,  it  was  supposed 
that  the  souls  of  the  departed  went  to 
Po,  (place  of  night,)  where  they  were 
annihilated,  or  eaten  by  the  gods.  Others 
considered  the  regions  of  Akea  and 
Milu  their  final  resting  places.  These 
were  former  kings  of  Hawaii,  who,  after 
death,  went  below  and  founded  king- 
doms, which  became  the  Hades  of  the 
Hawaiian  Islands.  Darkness  prevailed 
here,  and  lizards  and  butterflies  were 
the  only  diet.  The  spirits  of  the  depart- 
ed were  sometimes  sent  back  with  mes- 
sages to  the  living.  These  pretended 
messages  were  expounded,  greatly  to 
their  own  interest,  by  the  priests,  and 
were  received  as  divine  commands  by 
the  people.*  There  were  two  gods, 


*Hawaiians  supposed  they  had  two  souls,  one  of  which 
!  always  remained  with   the  body  ;   the  other   had   the 
I  power  of  leaving  it  for  good  or  evil  ;  to  aid  a  friend  or  to 
pursue  an  enemy  ;  a  belief  somewhat  similar  to  the  He- 
brew demonology.     A  class  of  priests  were  supposed  to 
I  possess  the  power  of  exorcising  the  evil  inclined  spirits, 
and  of  altogether  destroying  them.    Their  souls  were 
j  thought  to  he  distinct  Irom  the  body,  though  iu  near  re- 
j  lationship  ;  hence,  they  called  them  hoapili  o  ke  kino, 
I  "  close  adhering  companions  of  the  body." 

In  the  following  commencement  of  a  "mele,"  an  od*.- 
I  to  the  soul,  composed  by  Maewa,  a  modern  Hawaiian  and 
!  a  Christian,  he  still  recognizes  the  old  belief  of  two  dis- 
|  tinct  yet  familiar  existences.    The  present  race  gener- 
ally consider  their  souls  as  having  the  same  relation  tu 
their  bodies  as  their  shadows. 

;-  Aloha  ka  uhane,  ka  hoapili  o  ke  kino  ; 

I  pili  ka  ua  me  ka  la. 

A  o  ke  anuanu  me  ke  koekoe, 

Aloha  kuu  hoa  ohumu  o  kahi  kanaka  ole. 

A  o  hoi  na,  kuu  hoapili,  o  ka  ua  lauipo  lua, 
Hoa  ai  ole  o  na  kai  ewalu, 
A  me  na  makaui  eha  ; 
Kuu  hoa  o  ka  maona  kawalawahi. 
A  me  k-v  rnaka  poniuniu  ai  ole  ; 
He  pokakaa  ka  la  e  iioho  nei, 
A  hala  na  makahiki  eha, 
Malaila  no  ka  halialia  aloha  ana  mai,"  <fcc. 

TRA.VSLATION. 

"  Farewell,  thou  soul,  the  body's  near  companion, 

Companion  in  the  rain  and  in  the  sun, 

In  the  piercing  cold,  and  in  the  chilly  damp. 

Farewell  my  soul ;  we  have  communed  together  in  the 

still  retreat, 

Been  companions  in  the  crowd  and  in  the  silent  place.-*. 
'      And  thou  art  going,  ruy  bosom  friend,  in  the  dark  storm. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


one  of  whom  was  called  Kaonoliiolcala, 
the  eye-ball  of  the  sun,  who  conducted 
the  spirits  of  the  chiefs  to  a  place  in  the 
heavens,  where  it  was  supposed  their 
rulers  dwelt  after  death.  They  some- 
times returned  to  the  earth  and  watched 
over  the  welfare  of  their  survivors.  By 
this  belief,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  spir- 
itual destinies  of  the  nobles  were  well 
provided  for  by  the  complaisant  priests, 
in  return,  probably,  for  favors  received 
from  them  while  living.  Servitude  was 
the  lot  of  the  common  people  in  this  life, 
and  no  hope  enlivened  their  souls  for 
the  future. 

Hawaiians  in  their  gods  worshiped 
mere  physical  attributes ;  their  concep- 
tions of  divinity  being  limited  to  deeds  of 
strength,  lust  and  revenge,  with  perhaps 
an  occasional  dash  of  good  nature.  In 
this  they  differed  not  materially  from  the 
popular  opinions  of  the  polished  Greeks 
and  Romans.  Indeed,  a  uniformity  of 
ideas,  though  varied  in  application  by 
mental  cultivation  and  moral  sentiment, 
is  found  to  exist  among  all  nations  un- 
enlightened by  revelation.  Man  deified 
man.  His  fertile  imagination  peopled 
proves,  shores,  and  ocean,  with  beings 
of  wonderful  natures ;  with  some,  the 
objects  of  fear— -with  others,  of  com- 
panionship and  protection.  Each  indi- 
vidual, according  to  his  prominent  char- 
acteristic, selected  his  protecting  deity  ; 
thus  their  qualities  became  as  various 
as  the  tastes  and  dispositions  of  mankind; 
so  that  man,  reversing  the  primeval 
creation,  fashioned  gods  after  his  own 
image.  In  the  Hawaiian  mythology, 
little  exists  to  interest  or  instruct.  It  is 
a  record  of  depravity  necessary,  though 
painful,  to  examine,  that  a  proper  judg- 
ment of  their  aboriginal  condition  may 
be  formed. 

Their  gods  were  many,  and  received 
constant  additions  from  the  most  trivial 
circumstances.  Every  object  of  fear,  or 
from  which  harm  could  be  derived, 

V»ho  rcilest  with  me  o'er  the  waves  of  the  eight  was,* 

Aad  when  contending  with  the  four  winds  ; 

My  companion  in  rare-full  meals, 

.\.--ii  in  long-fasting  faintness. 

WLUe  living  here,  the  sun  has  onward  rolled. 

Aad  four  full  years  have  past  ; 

'Tis  but  a  vapor  of  a  loved  remembrance,"  Ace. 

The  remainder  of  this  ode,  with  an  excellent  transUi- 
Jif'Q  by  Rev.  L.  Andrews,  of  the  Sandwich  Islands  Mis- 
sion, will  be  found  in  the  Polynesian  for  Juiy,  1840. 
•*Tbe  several  channel*  between  the  islands. 


MALE    IDOL. 


I  was  worshiped.     Sharks,  volcanoes,  and 
|  any  singular  appearance  in  the  natural 
kingdom,  had  each  their  devotees.   There 
were  household  deities,  some  of  ludicrous 
!  and  obscene  character,  like  the  Roman 
Penates  ;  gods  of  war,  the  seasons,  crops, 
and   of  the   winds  ; 
also  of  precipices,  or 
dangerous  places  in 
traveling.       Images 
were  placed  on  such 
to  receive  the  offer- 
ings of  the  devout. 
Among  the  principal 
deities  were   Lono, 
Ku,  Kane  and  I&i- 
n<doa,    male    gods. 
Those  of  the  other 
sex   were   common ; 
of  which  Papa,  IIu- 
koku,   Walinu  and 
J£ahawahi)ie  were 
the  most  celebrated. 
A   human  origin   is 
ascribed  to  all. 
The  several  islands  had  favorite  idols. 
|  On  JVlaui,  Jfealoewa,  an  image  ot  wood, 
I  covered  with    "tapa,"  was  much  wor- 
I  shiped.    The  head,  which  was  disfigured 
with  an  enormous  mouth,  was  formed  of 
fine  basket-worh,  curiously  and  neatly 
I  wrong) it  with  red  feathers,  so  as  to  re- 
semble the  plumage  of  a 
beautiful  bird.     This  was 
surmounted  by  a  helmet, 
to  the  crown  of  which  long 
tresses  of  human  hair  were 
attached. 

Jiihu  was  a  famous  fe- 
male idol  of  the  same  isl- 
and, and  received  equal 
adoration  with  Kealoewa. 
On  Lanai,  two  large  stone 
images,  personifying  the 
deities  supposed  to  preside 
over  the  sea,  were  much 
honored  by  fishermen. 
ii  a  shark,  was  a  celebrated  ma- 
rine god  of  Molokai.  Numerous  tem- 
ples were  built  on  projecting  headlands 
for  his  homage,  and  to  them  the  first 
fruits  of  the  fishermen's  labors  were  dedi- 
cated. 

KalaipaliO'i,  a  carved,  wooden  image, 
was  much  feared.  Its  arms  were  ex- 
tended, with  spread  fingers,  its  head 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


23 


decorated  with  human  hair,  and  its  gap- 
ing mouth  ornamented  with  rows  of 
shark's  teeth.  The  wood  of  which  this 
idol  was  made,  to  in- 
crease the  horrid  ef- 
fect of  its  appearance, 
was  fabled  to  be  dead- 
ly poisonous. 

One  of  the  most 
popular  gods  of  Ha- 
waii was  Lono ,  an 
ancient  king,  who,  ac- 
cording to  the  tradi- 
tion, became  offended 
with  his  wife,  and 
murdered  her.  His  -"LAIPAHOA-POISON 
contrition  brought  on 
derangement,  and  he  traveled  through 
the  islands,  boxing  and  wrestling  with 


all  he  met.  Not  long  after,  he 
sailed  in  an  oddly  constructed 
canoe  for  a  foreign  land,  from 
which  he  never  returned.  He 
was  deified,  and  annual  ath- 
letic exercises  held  in  his 
honor.* 

This  was  the  God  for  whom 
Cook  was  mistaken  upon  his 
arrival ;  which  delusion  was 
not  altogether  removed  after 
his  death. 

The  most  fearful  of  all  their 
deities  was  1'ele,  a  goddess. 
Her  habitation,  the  famous 
volcano  of  Kilauea,  well  ac- 
corded with  her  reputed  char- 
acter. Here,  with  her  attend- 
ant spirits,  she  reveled  in  the 
flames ;  the  unearthly  noises 
of  the  burning  mass  were  the 
music  of  their  dance,  and  they 
bathed  in  the  red  surge  of 
the  fiery  billows,  as  it  dashed 
against  the  sides  of  the  crater. 
This  fire-loving  family  is  said 
to  have  emigrated  from  Ta- 
hiti, soon  after  the  deluge. 
Their  names,  as  given  by 
Ellis,  were  characteristic  of 
their  habits,  and  show  how 
readily  the  native  intellect  met- 


f 


GOD  LONG. 


*  The  following  is  a  translation  of  the  mele  composed 
oo  this  event:  Q  LONO  AKUA< 

1.  Lono  Akua  (God),  of  Hawaii,  in  ancient  times,  re- 
sided with  his  wife  at  Kealakeakua 

2.  The  name  of  the  goddess,  his  love,  was  Kaikilani 
Alii.    They  dwelt  beneath  the  steep  rock. 


|  amorphosed  natural  phenomena  into  per- 
sonal qualities. 

Pde  was  the  chief  goddess.    Her  prin- 
cipal followers  were  Ka-ma-hu-alii — 
the  king  of  steam  and  vapor.   Ka-poJm- 
i-kahi-ola — the  explosion  in  the  palace 
of  life.    Ke-ua-ke-po — the  rain  of  night. 
I  Kane-hekili — thundering  god.     Jfe-o- 
ahi-kama-kaua — fire-thrusting  child  of 
war.      These    were   brothers,   and   like 
Vulcan,  two   of  them   were    deformed. 
Makole-wawah l-waa — fiery-eyed  canoe 
brea  ker.   Ifiaka*uxxwalii-lanv+-he&ven- 
dwelling  cloud  breaker,  and  several  oth- 
ers of  longer  names,  and  similar  defini- 
tions.    These  latter  were  sisters.     The 
whole   family  were  regarded  with   the 
greatest  awe.     The  volcano  was  their 
principal  residence,  though  occasionally 
they  renovated  their  constitutions  amid 
the  snows  of  the  mountains.     On  such 
occasions,  their  journeys  were   accom- 
panied by  earthquakes,  eruptions,  heavy 
I  thunder  and  lightning.     All  were  ma"- 
|  lignant  spirits,  delighting  in  acts  of  ven- 
i  geance  and  destruction.     The  numerous 
|  eruptions  with  which  the  island  has  been 
devastated,  were  ascribed  to  their  en- 
mity.    Many  tributes  were  assessed  to 
avoid  or  appease  their  anger;  the  greater 
part  of  which  went  to  support  the  numer- 
ous and  wealthy  priesthood  and  their 
followers,  who  regulated  the  worship  of 
|  Pde.     These  were  held  in  the  highest 
reverence,  as  holding  in  their  power  the 
i  devouring  fires  of  the  all-powerful  god- 
j  dess.    To  insult  them,  break  their  taboos, 
or  neglect  to  send  offerings,  was  to  call 
down  certain  destruction.     At  their  call, 

3.  A  man  ascended  the  summit,  and  from  the  height 
thus  addressed  the  spouse  of  Lono  : 

4.  "  O  Kaikilani,  your  lover  salutes  you :  keep  this— 
remove  that  :  one  will  still  remain." 

5.  Lono,  overhearing  this  artful  speech,  killed  his  wife 
with  a  hasty  stroke. 

6.  Sorry  for  this  rash  act,  he  carried  to  a  hei&a  the 
lifeless  body  of  his  wife,  and  made  great  wail  over  it. 

7.  He  traveled  through  Hawaii  in  a  state  of  frenzy, 
boxing  with  every  one  he  met. 

8.  The    people    astonished,  said,   "Is   Lono  entirely 
nia<i  ? "    He  replied,  "  I  am  frantic  with  my  great  love." 

9.  Having  instituted  gamest  to  commemorate  her  death, 
he  embarked  in  a  triangular  canoe  for  a  foreign  land. 

10.  Ere  he  departed  he  prophesied,  "  I  will  return  in 
after  times,  on  an  island  bearing  cccoanut  trees,  swtae 
and  dogs."— [Voyage  of  the  Blonde,  p.  30,  where  this 
version  is  ascribed  to  the  American  missionories.] 

The  sacred  relic  from  which  the  representation  of  Lpno 
was  taken,  is  preserved  with  the  other  idols,  of  which 
engravings  have  been  given, in  the  Museum  of  the  Amer- 
ican Board  for  Foreign  Missions,  at  their  house  in  Pem- 
berton  Square,  Boston.  Lono  is  a  slim  figure,  of  about 
twelve  feet  in  height.  The  male  idol  is  a  colossal  image — 
the  others  are  small. 

t  Those  known  as  the  Makahiki. 


HISTORY  OP  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


Pele  would  spout  out  her  lava  and  destroy 
the  offenders.  Vast  numbers  of  hogs, 
both  cooked  and  alive,  were  thrown  into 
the  crater,  when  any  fear  of  an  eruption 
was  entertained,  or  to  stay  the  progress 
of  one  commenced.  Offerings  were  an- 
nually made  to  keep  her  in  good  humor, 
and  no  traveler  dared  venture  near  her 
precincts  without  seeking  her  good  will. 

Wonderful  monsters  and  giants  abound 
in  their  traditions,  showing  how  preva- 
lent was  the  love  of  the  marvelous. 
Events  and  people,  not  remarkable  in 
themselves,  in  the  course  of  time  have 
been  converted  into  miracles  and  heroes ; 
in  the  nature  of  which  the  ridiculous, 
rather  than  the  sublime,  predominates. 

Pele  and  her  family  are  said  to  have 
had  a  contest,  in  which  they  were  al- 
most overpowered,  with  J\mn<ii»«(a,  half 
hog  and  half  man  ;  a  gigantic  animal, 
the  Centaur  of  Hawraii.  He  traveled 
from  Oahu  to  countries  beyond  the  hea- 
vens, or  where  they  supposed  the  sky  to 
join  the  sea.  In  his  route  he  visited 
Kilauea,  and  desired  to  pay  his  addresses 
to  Pele.  She  rejected  him  with  con- 
tempt, impolitely  calling  him  "a  hog, 
and  the  son  of  a  hog."  In  endeavoring 
to  drive  him  away,  a  fierce  battle  took 
place.  Pele  fled  to  her  house,  and  her 
fires  were  nearly  extinguished  by  great 
quantities  of  water,  which  Kannintnni 
poured  into  the  crater.  The  thirsty  fam- 
ily, however,  soon  drank  it  up,  and  final- 
ly obtained  the  mastery  over  the  demi- 
hog,  forcing  him  into  the  sea,  amidst  a 
shower  of  fire  and  stones.  This  tale 
probably  originated  from  an  eruption,  in 
which  the  lava  of  the  volcano  came  in 
contact  with  the  ocean.  Another  ac- 
count states  that  he  conquered  Pde,  and 
they  were  quietly  married ;  in  conse- 
quence of  which  no  more  islands  were 
formed,  or  extensive  eruptions  took  place. 

This  same  character,  forgetful  of  his 
former  prowess,  was  guilty  of  stealing 
fowls  of  a  king  of  Oahu,  who,  to  revenge 
himself,  sent  and  captured  him.  How- 
ever, he  soon  released  himself  and  killed 
all  the  party  but  one,  whom  he  sent  back 
with  the  news  of  the  death  of  his  com- 
panions. This  mightily  enraged  the 
monarch,  and  he  summoned  all  his  force 
for  a  fresh  attack.  Success  attended  this 
effort,  and  Kamapuaa,  with  his  followers, 


!  were  pent  up  in  a  narrow  gorge,  between 
!  two  mountains,  all  sides  of  which,  but 
I  the  entrance,  were  bounded  by  stupend- 
i  ous  precipices.     Seeing  no  outlet  for  es- 
|  cape,  he  reared  upon  his  hind  legs,  and 
!  placing  his  fore  feet  upon  the  summit  of 
!  one  of  the  perpendicular  rocks,  formed  a 
j  bridge,    by   which    his    defeated   army, 
i  scrambling  over  his  back,  reached  the 
top  in  safety,  while  the  monster  himself, 
with  one  bound,  readily  surmounted  the 
i  difficulty.     At    Hauula,    where   this    is 
i  said  to  have  occurred,  the  natives  still 
!  point  out  the   smooth   channels  in  the 
I  rock,  made  by  his  efforts  on  this  occa- 
sion, but  which  incredulous  whites  be- 
lieve to  have  been  water  courses. 

Idols  were  of  every  variety  imagina- 
ble, from  hideous  and  deformed  sculp- 
tures of  wood,  to  the  utmost  perfection 
of  their  art.     The  features  of  their  re- 
i  ligion  were  embodied  in  these  images  ; 
!  the  most  desired  object  in  their  manu- 
|  facture  being  to  inspire  fear  and  horror, 
!  sentiments    which,    in   a   more    refined 
people,  would  from  such  exhibitions  have 
been  converted  into  disgust.     Much  cer- 
emony took  place  when  a  new  idol  was 
to  be  made.    A  great  procession,  headed 
by  the  highest  priests  and  chiefs,  inarched 
in  state  to  the  tree  selected  for  the  pur- 
pose.   After  it  was  felled,  a  man  or  hog 
was  sacrificed  on  its  site.     The  rocks  of 
a  beach  at  Ninole,  Hawaii,  were  in  high 
repute  among  the  manufacturers  of  stone 
images  and  adzes.     They  were  believed 
to  have  been  of  different  sexes,  and  there- 
fore to  have  had  the  power  of  propaga- 
tion, and  were    generally  used   in  the 
fabrication  of  gods  which  presided  over 
games.     When  a  suitable  stone  for  this 
I  design  was  found,  it  was  taken  to  the 
j  "  heiau,"  and  certain  rites  performed  ; 
after  which  it  was   properly  fashioned 
and  carried  to  the  arena  where  the  games 
j  were  held.     If  the  party  to  which  it  be- 
j  longed  were  frequently  successful,  it  was 
i  regarded  as  a  god ;   but  if  not,  it  was 
|  thrown  aside.     When  victims  were  re- 
|  quired  in  honor  of  Moa-alii,  the  divine 
i  shark,  or  it  was  supposed  to  be  hungry, 
the  priests  sallied  out  and  ensnared  with 
I  a  rope  any  one  whom  they  could  catch, 
'  who  was  immediately  strangled,  cut  in 
pieces  and  thrown  to  the  rapacious  fish. 
Another  ingenious  mode  of  entrapping 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


the  unwary  was  by  uttering  piteous  cries, 
like  a  wounded  or  sick  individual.  Those 
attracted  to  the  spot  were  seized  and 
sacrificed. 

Temples  or  heiaus  were  commonly 
erected  upon  hills,  or  near  the  sea,  and 
formed  conspicuous  objects  in  the  land- 
scapes. They  were  works  of  great  labor, 
built  of  loose  stones,  with  sufficient  skill 
to  form  compact  walls.  Their  usual 
shape  was  an  irregular  parallelogram. 
That  of  Kawaihae,  on  Hawaii,  is  two 
hundred  and  twenty-four  feet  long  and 
one  hundred  feet  wide,  with  walls  twelve 
feet  thick  at  the  base.  Its  height  is 
from  eight  to  twenty  feet,  two  to  six  feet 
wide  at  the  top,  which,  being  well  paved 
with  smooth  stones,  formed,  when  in  re- 
pair, a  pleasant  walk.  The  entrance  was 
narrow,  between  two  high  walls.  The 
interior  is  divided  into  terraces,  the  upper 
of  which  is  paved  with  flat  stones.  The 
south  end  constituted  an  inner  court,  and 
was  the  most  sacred  place.  Here  was 
placed  the  chiefs  idol,  surrounded  by  a 
multitude  of  inferior  deities.  A  small 
frame  of  wicker  work,  hollow  and  in  the 
shape  of  an  obelisk,  stood  in  the  centre 
of  the  inner  court ;  in  this  the  priest  sta- 
tioned himself  when  in  consultation  with 
the  god.  All  affairs  of  importance  were 
brought  before  him,  and  he,  pretending 
divine  inspiration,  like  the  sibyls  of 
classic  mythology,  answered  distinctly, 
though  ambiguously.  The  king  and 
chiefs  who  received  his  responses,  went 
outside  and  caused  them  to  be  proclaim- 
ed to  the  people.  The  sacrificial  altar 
was  near  the  entrance  to  this  court.  The 
high  chiefs  and  priests  only  were  allowed 
to  reside  within  the  precincts  of  the  tem- 
ple. The  external  walls  were  crowned 
with  hideous  idols  of  all  shapes  and  sizes. 
This  temple  was  built  by  Kamehameha  I. 
previous  to  his  conquest  of  the  leeward 
islands,  and  dedicated  to  his  favorite  war 
god  Kaili,  a  large  wooden  image  richly 
ornamented  with  red  feathers.  On  the 
day  it  was  completed,  eleven  men  were 
immolated  on  its  altar,  and  great  quan- 
tities of  fruit,  hogs  and  dogs  presented. 
The  other  heiaus,  the  ruins  of  which 
still  remain,  resemble  this,  but  were  not 
all  constructed  on  a  scale  of  equal  grand- 
eur. There  is  one  in  tolerable  preserva- 
tion, called  Kaili,  in  the  interior  of  Ha- 
4 


waii,  about  equi-distant  between  the 
three  mountains,  Mauna  Kea,  Mauna 
Loa  and  Hualalai.  It  was  the  work  of 
Umi,  the  most  noted  in  traditionary  lore 
of  the  kings  of  Hawaii,  and  imposed  by 
him  as  a  tribute  of  labor  on  his  several 
conquered  districts.  The  main  building 
is  92  feet  long  by  71  wide.  The  walls 
are  6  feet  9  inches  high,  7  feet  thick  at 
the  top,  and  quite  perpendicular.  Ad- 
joining it  are  a  number  of  rough  pyra- 
mids 18  feet  high  and  the  remains  of  a 
house  said  to  have  been  built  by  Umi 
for  his  wife.  This  temple  has  an  ele- 
vation of  5,000  feet  above  the  sea,  and 
is  built  of  compact  unhewn  lava,  without 
cement.* 

The  enclosures  sacred  to  Lono,  were 
built  of  the  ki  leaf,  and  four  distinct 
houses  erected  for  the  accommodation 
of  the  idols.  Fronting  these  was  a  hand- 
somely made,  high,  wooden  fence,  call- 
ed the  Anuii)  surmounted  by  numerous 
images.  The  Lama  was  the  only  tim- 
ber allowed  in  this  enclosure,  except 
the  Ohia,  of  which  the  idols  were  made. 
No  priests  except  those  attached  to 
Lono,  could  officiate  in  this  enclosure. 
This  was  a  universal  rule  ;  each  temple 
being  sacred  to  some  special  deity,  for 
whose  service  distinct  orders  of  priests 
were  maintained.  These  orders  were 
sub-divided  into  classes,  each  attending 
to  some  specified  duty.  The  king  alone 
had  free  access  to  all. 

Upon  the  consecration  of  a  temple,  or 
an  appointed  period  for  worship,  the 
day  was  made  sacred  and  the  most  pro- 
found silence  enforced.  All  animals 
that  were  not  removed,  were  ordered  to 
be  confined  and  kept  quiet ;  otherwise 
they  were  seized  and  offered  up  in  sac- 
rifice. Chiefs  and  priests,  entering  the 
most  sacred  house,  united  in  prayer  for 
many  successive  hours,  with  their  arms 
extended  toward  heaven.  On  important 
occasions,  several  days  were  spent  in 
this  manner,  and  were  succeeded  by  rites 
of  a  different  character.  The  priests 
went  through  various  manoeuvres,  sing- 
ing songs  and  chanting  praises  to  their 
deity.  Distinct  sacrifices,  laid  upon  altars 
and  lofty  scaffolds,  were  offered  for  the 
gods,  the  priests  and  the  people.  Women 
were  not  permitted  to  be  present  at  these 

*  Wilkes'  Voyage,  vol.  IV.,  p.  100. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


seasons,  and  the  restrictions  were  ex- 
tremely severe.  The  two  sexes  were  for- 
bidden all  intercourse  ;  if  they  but  spoke 
to  each  other,  or  accidentally  came  in 
contact,  the  penalty  was  death.  Any  in- 
fringement of  the  laws,  however  trivial, 
brought  the  same  punishment.  On  the 
eighth  day  of  the  dedication  the  last  hog 
reserved  for  this  occasion,  called  the 
puaa-heat  or  "  hog  to  be  entirely  con- 
sumed," was  sacrificed.  If  any  one  re- 
fused to  partake  of  its  flesh,  he  lost  his 
life,  as  it  was  supposed  if  any  portion  of 
his  body  remained  undevoured,  the  whole 
company  would  perish  by  some  awful 
judgment. 

Festivals  of  a  more  pleasing  descrip- 
tion were  frequently  held,  accompanied 
by  sports,  trials  of  skill,  dancing  and 
other  amusements. 

Human  sacrifices  were  common,  and 
occurred  previous  to  going  to  war,  upon 
the  death  of  any  high  chief,  or  any  other 
occasion  of  importance.  It  is  said  of 
Umi,  that  being  victorious  in  battle,  he 
commenced  sacrificing  human  victims 
to  his  god.  After  a  number  had  been 
slain,  the  insatiate  god  called  for  more, 
which  were  granted,  until  none  were 
left  except  Umi  and  the  priest.  In  this 
instance,  eighty  victims  perished.  An 
equal  number  are  said  to  have  been  sac- 
rificed on  other  occasions.  These  stories 
show  the  frequency  of  the  practice,  and 
the  prodigal  waste  of  human  life  attend- 
ing it.  All  criminals,  and  those  who  had 
broken  any  religious  requirements,  were 
slain  and  offered  to  the  gods.  Those  who 
were  destined  for  slaughter  for  any  great 
event  were  frequently  selected  for  months 
or  years  beforehand.  They  were,  prob- 
ably, such  as  were  obnoxious  to  the 
priests  or  chiefs,  whose  policy  prompted 
them  thus  to  dispose  of  them,  rather  than 
by  undisguised  murder.  Unconscious  of 
the  fate  that  awaited  them,  the  victims 
pursued  their  daily  avocations  in  appar- 
ent security,  the  first  intimation  of  their 
danger  being  the  fatal  blow.  Sometimes 
they  were  seized  and  carried  to  the  tem- 
ple, and  there  slain  to  avoid  mangling 
their  limbs.  Their  bodies  were  then 
stripped  and  placed  on  an  altar  before 
the  idol,  with  their  faces  downward.  If 
hogs  were  offered  at  the  same  time,  they 
were  piled  at  right  angles  upon  their 


bodies  ;  after  which  prayers  were  re- 
peated, and  the  whole  mass  left  in  that 
position  to  putrefy.  In  minor  affairs, 
animals,  fruits  or  vegetables  only  were 
offered.  The  former  were  slain  by  di- 
viners, who  observed  the  manner  of  their 
death,  the  looks  of  their  entrails,  and 
other  signs.  The  face  of  the  heavens, 
clouds  and  rainbows  were  also  examined, 
and,  according  to  their  appearance,  more 
or  less  favorable  auguries  given.  It  is 
probable,  however,  that  the  wishes  of  the 
chief  had  the  most  influence  in  dictating 
the  answers. 

The  priesthood  was  hereditary,  and 
formed  a  numerous  and  powerful  body. 
They  owned  much  property  in  people 
and  lands,  which  were  heavily  taxed  for 
their  support.  Each  chief  had  his  fam- 
ily priest,  who  followed  him  to  battle, 
carried  his  war-god,  and  superintended 
all  the  sacred  rites  of  his  household. 
The  priests  took  rank  from  their  gods 
and  chiefs ;  the  worship  of  the  latter 
usually  determining  the  popularity  of  the 
former.  The  keeper  of  the  national  war- 
god,  and  the  one  immediately  attached 
to  the  person  of  the  most  powerful  ruler, 
was  the  great  high  priest.  The  power 
of  the  priest,  though  it  partook  more  of 
a  religious  character,  was  scarcely  infe- 
rior to  that  of  the  chief.  Their  persons 
were  sacred,  from  their  supposed  famil- 
iarity with  the  gods.  It  sometimes  hap- 
pened that  a  chief  took  the  sacred  offices 
upon  himself;  though,  perhaps,  from  the 
nature  of  the  intimate  connection  exist- 
ing between  the  two  orders,  the  absolute 
power,  both  in  politics  and  religion,  cen- 
tred in  the  head  of  the  clan.  When  the 
supreme  sovereignty  is  resolved  into  the 
whims  and  caprices  of  one  individual, 
and  is  constantly  changing  by  death  or 
warfare,  no  regular  system,  either  in 
government  or  religion,  can  be  developed. 
From  all  that  has  transpired  of  their 
early  history,  it  would  appear,  that  while 
chiefs  and  priests  maintained  their  power 
in  all  its  absoluteness, 'the  rites  and  cere- 
monies, and  even  the  deities  of  their 
faith,  were  ever  varying.  The  desires 
of  the  moment  being  the  law  of  the  land, 
there  is,  consequently,  but  little  of  per- 
manent interest  to  be  recorded.  One 
fact  is  everywhere  apparent :  the  spirit- 
ual, like  the  temporal  lords  of  the  people, 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


amid  all  their  vagaries,  never  neglected 
their  own  interests.  Every  ceremony 
or  superstition  was  framed  to  aid  their 
already  overgrown  power ;  humanity,  or 
a  regard  for  the  rights  of  their  inferiors, 
would  have  been  received  as  monstrous 
deviations  from  the  true  policy  of  gov- 
ernment. Perhaps  they  governed  no 
more  harshly  than  could  have  been  ex- 
pected from  a  privileged  order,  nursed 
in  selfishness  and  brutality.  Their  very 
superiority  of  station  and  feeling,  inci- 
dentally developed  a  slight  courteousness 
of  manner,  when  compared  with  the  dark 
mass  beneath  them.  Among  equals, 
much  ceremony  prevailed,  and  an  ex- 
ternal degree  of  artificial  politeness, 
which  served  to  disguise  the  most  odious 
features  of  their  characters. 

Even  over  the  warrior-chiefs,  the 
priests,  at  times,  were  enabled  to  exer- 
cise a  powerful  influence,  and  made  their 
religious  fears  and  blind  devotion  sub- 
servient to  their  selfish  purposes.  In 
sickness,  or  fear  of  sorcery,  their  aid  was 
to  be  purchased  only  by  gifts,  in  propor- 
tion to  the  rank  of  the  applicant.  Great 
prices  were  exhorted  for  incantations  to 
be  practiced  upon  enemies,  or  counter 
ceremonies,  to  avoid  such  phantoms  as 
their  imaginations  had  not  only  given 
birth  to,  but  which  they  pretended  to  the 
exclusive  power  to  allay. 

Offerings  to  the  gods,  or,  more  prop- 
erly, to  the  priests,  were  required  at  all 
religious  ceremonies,  and  on  every  occa- 
sion the  people  desired  their  services. 
The  wants  of  the  priesthood  regulated 
the  amount;  when  the  regular  taxes 
failed  in  supplying  their  desires,  the 
wishes  of  the  god  were  called  into  requi- 
sition, and  the  coveted  articles  tabooed  • 
for  his  use.  Orisons,  chants  and  offer- 
ings were  made  by  the  priests  at  their 
meals.  Even  in  the  care  of  their  fowls 
and  quadrupeds,  they  enjoyed  remarka- 1 
ble  privileges.  Hogs  received  alive,  were 
dedicated  to  the  god  of  the  order,  re- ' 
ceived  his  marks,  and  turned  loose  to 
fatten  upon  the  plantations  of  the  poor 
cultivators ;  none  daring  openly  to  in- 
jure or  drive  away  the  sacred  animals. 

The  expression  taboo,  or,  according  to 
Hawaiian  orthography,  Kapu,  which, 
from  its  usefulness,  has  now  become  in- 
corporated into  most  modern  tongues, 


27 


requires  some  explanation.     Originally, 
it  meant  sacred,     it  implies  no  moral 
quality,  but  is  indicative  of  a  particular 
distinction,  or  separation  from  common 
purposes,  for  some  special  design,  and 
also  expresses  an  unlimited  restriction. 
Formerly,  it  was  applied  exclusively  to 
persons  or  things  in  a  sacred  sense,  and 
was   strictly  a  religious  ceremony,  im- 
posed only  by  the  priests ;  but  has  since 
come  into  common  use  in  the  every-day 
concerns  of  life.    Anciently,  those  chiefs 
who  pretended  to  derive  their  descent 
from  the  gods  were  called  alii  fcapu, 
sacred  chiefs.    A  temple,  exclusively  de- 
voted to  the  abode  and  worship  of  gods, 
was  said  to  be  wahi  kapu — sacred  place. 
Anything  dedicated  or  reserved  for  the 
exclusive  use  of  gods,  chiefs,  or  priests, 
was  considered  as  ~kapu  for  them.    Cer- 
tain lands  and  islands  were  kapu,  as 
well  as  hunting-grounds,  fish,  fruit,  or 
whatever  the  sacred  classes  chose  to  re- 
serve for  themselves.    These  kapus  were 
occasional,  or  permanent — particular  fish, 
fruits  and  vegetables   being  sometimes 
taboo  both  from  men  and  women  for  sev- 
eral successive  months.    The  idols,  tem- 
ples, persons  and  names  of  their  kings, 
and  members  of  the  royal  family;  per- 
sons and  property  of  the  priests  ;  every- 
thing appertaining  to  the  gods ;  religious 
devotees;  the  chiefs'  bathing-places,  or 
favorite  springs  of  water;  and  everything 
offered  in  sacrifice,  were  strictly  Jcapu. 
Trees  of  which  idols  were  made  were 
taboo,  so  whatever  an  individual  chose 
as  his   object  of  worship  became  ever 
afterwards  taboo  to  him,  though  it  were 
a  fish,  fowl,  dog  or  vegetable.     In  mod- 
ern times,  this  rnagic  term  has  become 
the  property  of  all.    A  common  man  can 
taboo  his  house,  lands,  or  make  any  par- 
tial restrictions,  and  all  would  respect  the 
prohibition.     Any  forbidden   article    or 
action  is  called  tabooed  ;  hence  its  com- 
mon use  in  the  domestic  circle,  and  its 
application  to  laws.    A  captain  can  taboo 
his  ship,  and  none  dare  approach.     Ta- 
booed property  is  generally  marked  by 
small  white  flags,  or  other  signs  which 
are   well   understood.     At   the   present 
time,  any  individual  can  impose  such 
taboos  as  suits  his  necessities  or  conve- 
nience, provided  they  do  not  infringe  per- 
sonal rights  or  the  laws  of  the  kingdom. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


Formerly  a  religious  motive  was  neces- 
sary for  its  assignment,  but  as  the  power 
of  the  chiefs  increased,  its  use  was 
greatly  corrupted,  while  its  influence  re- 
mained the  same,  and  may  be  said  to 
have  partaken  of  the  preternatural.  The 
bans  of  the  Romish  church,  in  the  proud- 
est days  of  that  hierarchy,  were  not  more 
powerful  or  obligatory.  Every  will  of  a 
chief,  however  monstrous,  was  promul- 
gated as  a  taboo,  and  officers  were  ap- 
pointed to  see  that  it  was  observed. 

This  institution,  unknown  elsewhere, 
is  general  with  slight  variations  through- 
out the  Polynesian  groups.  Its  antiquity 
is  co-eval  with  the  superstitions  which  it 
so  materially  strengthened,  and  it  may 
be  regarded  as  one  of  the  profoundest 
productions  of  heathen  ingenuity.  A 
more  cogent  principle  of  religious  despot- 
ism, at  once  capable  of  great  utility  and 
equal  abuse,  could  not  have  been  devised. 
Its  application  was  adapted  to  all  wants 
and  circumstances,  and  no  civil  or  eccle- 
siastical government  ever  possessed  a 
more  refined,  yet  effective  weapon.  Its 
influence,  among  the  common  people, 
was  universal  and  inflexible.  Its  exact- 
ments  were  of  the  most  humiliating  and 
troublesome  description,  and  if  anything 
had  been  wanting  to  complete  their  bond- 
age, this,  like  the  key-stone  to  an  arch, 
was  made  to  perfect  and  perpetuate  their 
degradation.  Keligion  like  government 
emanating  from  the  higher  classes,  fitted 
them  loosely  and  easily,  and  could  be 
set  aside  or  put  in  motion  at  their  option. 

The  penalties  partook  both  of  a  tem- 
poral and  supernatural  character,  the 
victims,  like  those  of  the  Inquisition, 
being  equally  delivered  to  the  terrors  of 
the  secular  arm,  and  the  judgments  of 
offended  gods.  Unless  powerful  friends 
interfered,  the  slightest  breach  of  any  of 
its  requisitions,  however  absurd  or  arti- 
ficial, was  punished  with  death.  Some 
were  burnt,  others  strangled,  despatched 
with  clubs  or  stones  within  the  temples, 
or  sacrificed  in  a  more  lingering  and 
dreadful  manner.  Eyes  were  scooped 
out,  limbs  broken,  and  the  most  exquisite 
tortures  inflicted  for  several  days,  before 
the  final  stroke  was  given. 

Particular  seasons  were  taboo;  as  on 
the  sickness  of  a  high  chief,  preparations 
for  war,  or  the  approach  of  important  ! 


religious  ceremonies.  Their  duration 
was  indefinite,  sometimes  for  a  day  only, 
then  for  months,  and  occasionally  for 
years.  Thirty  to  forty  days  was  the 
ordinary  period  before  Kamehameha's 
reign,  when  they  were  much  reduced. 

These  taboos  were  either  common  or 
strict,  and  were  proclaimed  by  criers  or 
heralds.  Men  only  were  required  to  ab- 
stain from  their  common  pursuits,  and 
to  attend  prayers  morning  and  evening 
at  the  heiau,  during  the  former.  But 
when  the  season  of  strict  taboo  was  in 
force,  a  general  gloom  and  silence  per- 
vaded the  whole  district  or  island.  Not 
a  fire  or  light  was  to  be  seen,  or  canoe 
launched ;  none  bathed ;  the  mouths  of 
dogs  were  tied  up,  and  fowls  put  under 
calabashes,  or  their  heads  enveloped  in 
cloth ;  for  no  noise  of  man  or  animal 
must  be  heard.  No  persons,  excepting 
those  who  officiated  at  the  temple,  were 
allowed  to  leave  the  shelter  of  their 
roofs.  Were  but  one  of  these  rules 
broken,  the  taboo  would  fail  and  the  gods 
be  displeased. 

When  the  sacred  chiefs  appeared  in 
public,  all  the  common  people  prostrated 
themselves,  with  their  faces  upon  the 
earth.  The  food  of  chiefs  and  priests, 
they  being  interdicted  from  handling  any- 
thing during  this  taboo,  was  put  into 
their  mouths  by  their  attendants. 

The  only  feature  in  the  religious  sys- 
tem which  can  be  regarded  with  a  de- 
gree of  satisfaction,  arid  that  only  par- 
tially, was  the  Puuhonua,  or  city  of 
refuge,  which  gleams  amid  rapidly  in- 
creasing darkness,  like  the  last  faint  ray 
of  a  setting  sun.  There  were  two  on 
Hawaii ;  one  at  Waipio,  the  other  at 
Honaunau.  Those  who  fled  from  an 
enemy,  the  manslayer,  those  who  had 
transgressed  taboo,  the  thief,  and  even 
the  vilest  criminal,  if  they  could  reach 
their  precincts,  were  in  an  inviolable 
sanctuary.  They  were  free  to  all  of 
every  tribe,  or  condition,  though  the  fly- 
ing party  could  be  pursued  to  their  very 
gates,  which  were  perpetually  open.  The 
rescued  party  repaired  immediately  to 
the  idol,  and  offered  a  thanksgiving  for 
his  escape. 

They  also  afforded  safe  retreats  dur- 
ing war.  All  the  non-combatants  of  the 
neighboring  districts,  men,  women  and 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


29 


children,  flocked  into  them,  and  there 
awaited  the  issue  of  the  struggle.  To 
them  also  the  vanquished  fled.  If  they 
could  reach  a  spot,  a  short  distance  out- 
side the  walls,  where,  during  war,  a 
white  banner  was  displayed,  they  were 
safe.  Should  a  victorious  warrior  ven- 
ture further,  he  would  be  put  to  death 
by  the  attendant  priests  and  their  ad- 
herents. Those  once  within  the  pale  of 
the  sanctuary  were  under  the  protection 
of  Keawe,  the  tutelar  deity  of  the  en- 
closure. Houses  were  erected  for  the 
accommodation  of  all  within  their  walls. 
After  a  short  period,  they  were  per- 
mitted to  return  unmolested  to  their 
homes,  the  divine  protection  being  sup- 
posed still  to  abide  with  them. 


These  places  of  refuge  were  very  ca- 
pacious, and  built  after  the  manner  of 
their  temples.  The  one  at  Honauna'u 
is  seven  hundred  and  fifteen  feet  in 
length,  and  four  hundred  and  four  feet 
wide.  Its  walls  are  twelve  feet  high 
and  fifteen  thick,  and  \vere  formerly 
surmounted  with  images,  four  rods  apart, 
over  their  whole  extent.  Three  large 
heiaus  were  erected  within,  one  of  which 
presented  a  solid  pyramid  of  stone,  one 
hundred  and  twenty-six  feet  by  sixty, 
and  ten  feet  high.  In  several  parts  of 
the  wall  are  large  masses  of  rock,  weigh- 
ing two  or  more  tons,  each  raised  six 
feet  above  the  ground.  This  Puuhonua 
was  built  for  Keawe,  who  reigned  in 
Hawaii,  two  hundred  and  seventy  years 


INTERIOR  VIEW  OF  A  I1EIAU,  ON  KAUAI,  IN  1778. 


ago,  and  destitute  as  the  islanders  were 
of  any  machinery,  must  have  been  a 
herculean  task,  requiring  the  labor  of  a 
vast  number  of  people. 

These  sanctuaries  are  somewhat  anal- 
ogous to  the  Israelitish  cities  of  refuge, 
and  originated,  doubtless,  from  the  bar- 
barous and  sanguinary  customs,  common 
to  both  nations,  which  required  a  safe- 
guard from  the  effects  of  evil  passions, 
constantly  kept  in  excitement  by  the 
universal  prevalence  of  the  law  of  re- 
taliation, and  the  bloody  character  of 
their  warfare. 

While  considerable  difference  in  gov- 
ernment, and  certain  customs,  originat- 
ing from  local  circumstances,  prevailed 
throughout  Polynesia,  a  general  uni- 
formity in  religion  existed.  The  earliest 


traditions  are  strikingly  similar,  and  the 
rites  and  priesthood  are  of  the  same  san- 
guinary character.  A  more  refined  bar- 
barism prevailed  among  the  Society  and 
Samoa  islanders,  the  former  of  which 
have  aptly  been  called  the  French  of  the 
Pacific.  Still,  when  a  general  compar- 
ison is  drawn,  not  a  doubt  of  their  com- 
mon origin  can  be  entertained.  The 
structure  of  their  languages,  their  phys- 
ical characteristics,  analogous  religion .s 
systems,  and  a  general  conformity  in  all 
the  arts  and  customs  of  life,  clearly  de- 
monstrate the  fact.  While  the  Hawaiian, 
in  certain  points,  appeared  to  more  ad- 
vantage than  his  southern  brother,  in 
religion  and  government  he  was  behind 
him.  In  New  Zealand,  the  Marquesas, 
Samoa  and  Tonga  groups,  an  approach 


30 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


to  republican  freedom  prevailed,  which  I 
here  found  no  counterpart.  The  power 
of  the  chiefs  was  more  restricted,  vary- 
ing much  in  the  different  groups.  The 
religion  of  the  Tahitian,  Samoan  and 
Tongan  constituted  a  better  denned  sys^ 
tern,  and  was  founded  on  certain  well 
established  traditions  and  maxims,  hand- 
ed down  from  their  forefathers.  Its  ef- 
fects, though  disastrous  in  the  extreme, 
were  less  conspicuously  degrading.  A 
refinement  of  heathenism  was  diffused, 
which  served  to  gild  the  darker  shades 
of  its  character,  and  it  was  not  until  the 
veil  was  completely  stripped  from  the 
vile  image,  that  all  its  deformities  ap- 
peared. Many  of  the  early  voyagers 
formed  from  superficial  views,  favorable 
opinions  of  the  savage  character,  which 
served  for  awhile  to  deceive  the  world 
with  false  ideas  of  the  innocency  of  man, 
in  his  primeval  condition.  A  knowledge 
of  his  sanguinary  worship,  and  its  direful 
effects,  soon  served  to  dissipate  this  be- 
lief ;  and  now,  none  but  those  who  have 
theoretical  views  to  maintain  give  it 
credence.  A  valuable  lesson  is  to  be 
learned  from  the  history  of  the  savage 
tribes,  so  rapidly  wasting  away,  or  merg- 
ing into  civilized  nations,  inasmuch  as 
it  serves  to  illustrate  the  history  of  un- 
enlightened and  unevangelized  man  left 
in  isolated  communities  to  grope  his  way, 
unaided  by  the  light  of  revelation.  Could 
a  result  more  painful  to  human  dignity 
present  itself?  As  before  the  flood,  "the 
wickedness  of  man  became  great  in  the 
earth,  and  every  imagination  of  the 
thoughts  of  his  heart  was  only  evil  con- 
tinually." 


CHAPTER  III. 

Warlike  weapons— Armor— Feather  cloaks  aivl  hel- 
mets— War— Preparations— Militia— Camps-— Mode 
of  fighting— Victors  and  vanquished— Truces— Peace 

— Festivals— Orators  and  Bards — Songs — Wailing 

Games— Dances— Mourning  ceremonies— Arts  and 
Agriculture— Houses— Ceremonies  before  occupyin" 
—Clothing— Food  —  Fisheries  —  Commerce  between 
diiferent  islands— Stated  fairs— Method  of  computa- 
tion— Knowledge  and  practice  of  medicine — Origin 
and  cure  of  diseases — Slodes  of  burial — Division  of 
time— Hawaiian  dialect. 

WE  now  come  to  a  consideration  of 
the  knowledge  of  the  Hawaiians  as  de- 
veloped in  their  arts,  manufactures  and 
customs.  In  considering  these,  however, 
it  is  fair  to  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  the 


natural  resources  of  their  islands  were 
extremely  few,  they  furnishing  no  metals 
and  but  few  minerals.  When  this  is 
considered,  we  must  award  them  the 
credit  of  no  little  ingenuity  and  skill  in 
what  they  produced.  Indeed  it  may  be 
questioned  whether  they  did  not  carry 
civilization  in  this  point  to  the  full  ex- 
tent of  their  feeble  means.  This  one 
fact  shows  how  important  a  civilized 
commerce  has  become.  Without  it  the 
tribes  of  heathendom  would  still  have 
been  groping  their  isolated  way  in  pov- 
erty and  sensuality  amid  regions  which 
required  but  the  presence  of  commerce 
to  add  to  them  tenfold  value  and  make 
them  abodes  for  refined  and  intelligent 
beings. 

The  warlike  weapons  of  the  Hawai- 
ians were  few  and  simple.  They  con- 
sisted of  spears,  javelins,  daggers  and 
clubs,  made  from  a  tough  wood,  suscep- 
tible of  high  polish.  These  were  their 
most  effective  weapons.  They  had  no 
shields,  javelins  being  used  on  the  de- 
fensive as  well  as  offensive,  in  the  former 
of  which  they  were  even  more  expert 
than  in  the  latter.  Their  lances  were 
perfectly  straight,  flattened  to  a  point  at 
one  end,  and  from  twelve  to  twenty  feet 
in  length.  Javelins  were  similarly  con- 
structed, barbed,  and  about  six  feet  long. 
The  laau  patent,  a  species  of  club  or 
halbert,  several  feet  longer,  was  employ- 
ed either  in  thrusting  or  striking.  The 
paloa,  or  dagger,  was  from  sixteen  inches 
to  two  feet  in  length,  frequently  pointed 
at  both  ends,  with  a  string  attached  to 
the  handle,  by  which  it  was  made  fast 
to  the  wrist.  Bows  and  arrows  were 
rarely  used,  being  so  poorly  fabricated  as 
to  be  of  little  utility.  Slings,  manufac- 
tured from  human  hair  or  the  elastic 
fibres  of  the  cocoanut  husk,  were  a  de- 
structive weapon.  The  ammunition  used 
was  small,  smooth  stones,  which  were 
cast  with  great  force  and  precision.  Small 
swords,  or  saws,  the  edges  of  which  were 
set  with  sharks'  teeth,  were  common. 

Defensive  armor  was  seldom  employ- 
ed. Besides  the  malo,  the  cloth  girded 
about  the  loins,  a  turban  was  occasion- 
ally worn.  The  helmets  and  war-cloaks, 
although  they  gave  their  wearers  an  im- 
posing and  martial  appearance,  must 
have  proved  an  incumbrance.  The 


IflSTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


former  being  made  of  wicker-work,  and 
closely  fitted  to  the  crown,  were  too 
slightly  constructed  to  afford  any  secu- 
rity against  a  well  directed  blow.  Those 
worn  by  the  high  chiefs  resembled  the 
Grecian  casque,  and  were  exceedingly 
beautiful.  They  were  surmounted  by  a 
lofty  crest,  sometimes  ornamented  with 
the  tail-plumage  of  the  tropic  bird,  and 
the  whole  thickly  wrought  with  glossy 
red  and  yellow  feathers.  With  the 
cloaks,  they  were  admirably  adapted  to 
set  off  to  advantage  the  towering  figures 
of  the  chiefs.  Cloaks  or  capes,  made 
exclusively  of  yellow  feathers,  were  re- 
served for  the  king. 

The  mamo,  or  feather  war-cloak  of 
Kamehameha,  occupied  nine  generations 
of  kings  in  its  fabrication,  not  being  com- 
pleted until  the  reign  of  the  father  of  the 
present  sovereign.  Its  length  is  four 
feet,  with  eleven  and  a  half  feet  spread 
at  the  bottom.  The  groundwork  is  a  fine 
netting.  To  this  the  feathers,  which  are 
exceedingly  small  and  delicate,  being 
less  than  an  inch  in  length,  are  skillfully 
attached.  They  overlap  each  other,  and 
form  a  perfectly  smooth  surface.  Around 
the  borders  the  feathers  are  reversed. 
The  whole  is  of  a  beautifully  bright  yel- 
low hue,  giving  it  the  appearance  of  a 
golden  mantle.  Such  cloaks  were  rare, 
for  savage  despotism  could  not  produce  a 
richer  or  more  costly  garment.  The  birds 
from  which  the  feathers  are  obtained  are 
found  in  the  mountainous  parts  of  the 
islands,  and  caught  by  means  of  an  ad- 
hesive substance  smeared  upon  long 
poles,  well  baited,  which  are  thickly 
scattered  about  their  haunts.  Alighting 
upon  these,  their  feet  become  attached ; 
the  hunter  then  easily  secures  them,  and 
plucks  from  under  their  wings,  the  two 
feathers — all  each  bird  produces — which 
ate  so  much  coveted.  These  feathers 
are  highly  valued,  a  piece  of  nankeen, 
of  the  value  of  one  dollar  and  a  half, 
being  the  price  given  for  five,  in  modern 
times.  If  the  labor  expended  on  this 
cloak  could  be  estimated,  its  nominal 
worth  would  be  found  equal  to  that  of 
the  most  costly  gems  in  the  regalia  of 
Europe.  Those  of  other  chiefs,  being 
alternated  with  red  and  yellow,  rhom- 
boidal  figures  or  lines,  relieved  with  sec- 
tions of  dark  purple  or  glossy  black, 


were  less  expensive  and  beautiful.  A 
smaller  kind,  manufactured  of  the  same 
materials,  was  worn  by  those  whose 
rank  did  not  entitle  them  to  the  larger 
garment.  An  ornament,  made  from  a 
whale's  tooth,  called  apalaocr,  suspend- 
ed from  the  neck  by  braids  of  human 
hair,  was  much  prized. 

In  their  modes  of  warfare,  they  exhib- 
ited considerable  address.  Besides  agri- 
culture, war  being  a  chief  occupation,  it 
was  reduced  to  a  system  of  which  the 
following  were  the  principal  features. 

In  a  war  of  magnitude,  a  universal 
conscription  was  enforced,  none  but  those 
incapacitated  by  age  or  bodily  infirmity, 
being  excused  Irom  following  their  lead- 
ers to  the  field.  All  were  drilled  in  the 
use  of  arms,  and  practiced  warlike  exer- 
cises, such  as  sham-fights,  slinging  stones 
at  a  mark,  throwing  the  javelin,  warding 
it  off,  or  catching  it  in  their  hands,  wres- 
tling, &c.  After  war  was  declared,  the 
king,  principal  warriors  and  priests  de- 
termined the  plan  of  attack,  or  the  gen- 
eral method  for  its  prosecution.  Lima- 
pai,  "  war-heralds,"  were  sent  through 
all  the  districts,  summoning  such  of  the 
chiefs  and  their  tenants  as  were  to  bear 
part  in  its  operations.  Women  frequently 
fought  in  the  ranks,  or  bore  refreshments 
to  their  party,  through  the  thickest  of 
the  fray.  All  were  required  to  bring 
their  own  weapons  and  provisions,  which 
were  generally  prepared  beforehand,  for 
emergencies  of  this  nature.  Should  any 
refuse  to  obey  the  summons,  their  ears 
were  slit,  and  they  were  led  .into  the 
camp  with  ropes  around  their  bodies. 
!  So  great  was  the  disgrace  attached  to 
I  this  punishment,  that  there  was  seldom 
occasion  to  resort  to  it. 

Upon  reaching  the  rendezvous,  every 
chief  reported  the  number  and  condition 
of  his  followers  to  the  commander.  Each 
division  encamped  around  the  hut  of  its 
leader,  or  occupied  a  large  house  by  it- 
self. No  fortifications  were  erected, 
though  favorable  natural  sites  for  defence 
were  selected  for  camps,  and  pickets  sta- 
tioned at  the  several  approaches.  The 
non-combatants  were  sent  to  strongholds, 
or  fortresses  erected  on  steep  eminences, 
to  which,  in  case  of  defeat,  the  whole 
army  retired,  and  defended  them  to  the 
last  extremity. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


Unlike  most  savages,  they  appear  to 
have  been  deficient  in  the  science  of 
strategy ;  seldom  lying  in  ambush,  but 
making  their  assaults  openly,  and  gen- 
erally in  the  day  time.  Their  methods 
of  attack  and  defence  were  various,  ac- 
cording to  the  nature  of  the  ground  and 
the  force  of  the  enemy,  and  exhibited 
much  ingenuity.  When  on  an  open 
plain,  the  army  was  drawn  up  in  the 
form  of  a  crescent.  A  body  of  spear 
men,  forming  a  kind  of  phalanx,  com- 
posed the  centre,  while  the  slingers,  and 
those  armed  with  javelins,  were  dis- 
tributed throughout  the  line.  The  com- 
mander was  either  the  highest  chief,  or 
a  warrior  of  distinguished  bravery  and 
address.  His  position  was  in  the  centre, 
and  the  other  chiefs  were  stationed  about 
the  ranks,  at  his  discretion.  When  an 
action  took  place  in  a  narrow  defile,  the 
army  was  formed  in  a  single  column. 
The  first  division  was  called  welau,  the 
extremity  or  point,  and  received  the 
brunt  of  the  onset.  The  strongest  divis- 
ion, in  the  centre  of  which  was  the  chief, 
was  poohiwi,  "  the  shoulder."  Other 
portions  were  known  by  similarly  de- 
scriptive terms.  No  banners  were  used, 
but  idols  were  borne  in  the  ranks ;  the 
priests  of  which,  in  the  heat  of  the  ac- 
tion, rushed  forward,  uttering  terrific 
yells,  and  distorted  their  features  into 
the  most  frightful  forms,  to  spread  dis- 
may into  the  opposing  force,  and  stimu- 
late the  courage  of  their  own  ;  the  yells 
and  grimaces  being  supposed  to  proceed 
from  the  images. 

As  the  whole  army  seldom  engaged 
at  once,  the  battles  were  usually  a  suc- 
cession of  skirmishes,  or  but  partial  ac- 
tions. Naval  engagements,  in  which 
several  hundred  canoes  were  employed 
on  both  sides,  were  not  unusual.  Flags, 
called  puwalu,  were  then  used,  and  at- 
tached to  the  triangular  sails  of  the 
canoes.  Boastful  shouts,  yells,  cries  of 
defiance,  and  every  noise  calculated  to 
intimidate,  resounded  among  the  com- 
batants. The  bodies  of  the  first  slain 
on  either  side,  received  the  greatest  in- 
dignities, and  their  mangled  remains 
were  dedicated  to  the  gods  of  the  victors. 
Sometimes  a  single  warrior,  deridingly 
carrying  only  a  fan,  would  advance  from 
the  lines,  and  insult  the  opposite  party 


with  the  most  opprobious  language,  chal- 
lenging it  to  begin  the  attack  upon  him 
singly.  In  reply  to  this  rhodomonte.de, 
a  dozen  or  more  spears  would  be  cast  at 
him  at  once  ;  these,  by  nimbly  stooping, 
twisting  and  jumping  aside,  he  would 
avoid.  Occasionally,  with  a  motion  of 
his  arm,  he  would  ward  them  off,  or 
catch  them  in  his  hands,  and  hurl  them 
back  upon  the  foe.  Should  he  be  slain, 
a  bloody  encounter  ensued  for  the  pos- 
session of  the  body. 

The  conflicts,  which  do  not  appear  to 
have  been  very  fatal,  sometimes  lasted 
for  several  successive  days,  and  were 
then  terminated  by  mutual  consent ; 
both  parties,  in  contradiction  of  the  vain- 
glorious civilized  custom  in  such  cases, 
acknowledging  themselves  luka  lua, 
beaten.  More  frequently  one  was  routed, 
and  fled  for  safety  to  the  sacred  enclo- 
sures, or  their  mountain  retreats.  Those 
overtaken  were  massacred,  or  else  brought 
to  the  chiefs  for  their  final  decision. 
Some  were  spared  to  be  slaves ;  others 
for  future  sacrifices*  When  the  chief 
was  mercifully  inclined,  he  spoke  to  or 
recognized  the  prisoners,  who  were  then 
safe,  and  could  either  return  to  their 
own  tribe,  or  join  the  train  of  their  pre- 
server, which  they  generally  did.  The 
victors  erected  cairns  over  the  remains 
of  their  slain,  leaving  the  bodies  of  the 
vanquished  to  be  devoured  by  wild  hogs 
and  dogs.  The  subdued  country  was 
apportioned  among  the  conquering  chiefs; 
the  wives  and  children  of  the  captives 
being  made  slaves,  and  attached  to  the 
soil,  to  cultivate  it  for  their  new  masters, 
who  treated  them  with  great  harshness. 

Branches  of  the  ti  plant,  or  young- 
banana  trees,  were  used  as  flags  of 
truce.  When  peace  was  sought,  am- 
bassadors were  sent,  bearing  these  sym- 
bols. After  arranging  the  preliminaries, 
the  chiefs  and  priests  of  both  parties 
met  and  adjusted  the  terms.  This  done, 
a  pig  was  sacrificed,  and  its  blood  pour- 
ed upon  the  ground — emblematic  of  the 
fate  of  either  party  that  should  after- 
wards infringe  its  conditions.  A  sweet 
scented  wreath  was  then  woven  by  the 
leaders  of  both  sides,  and  deposited,  as 
a  peace  offering,  in  a  temple.  Feasts, 
dances  and  public  games  celebrated 
this  return  of  good  will,  and  heralds 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


were  sent  to  announce  the  termination 
of  the  war. 

The  professions  of  the  orators  and 
bards  were  hereditary  and  highly  illus- 
trious. The  former  were  employed  on 
all  great  occasions  to  plead  cases,  and 
in  all  national  negotiations.  The  latter, 
some  of  whom  were  blind,  were  the  re- 
positories of  the  historical  and  sacred 
songs,  and  composers  of  new,  which 
they  sang  in  honor  of  their  divine  and 
temporal  lords.  They  were  handed 
down  with  great  care  from  one  genera- 
tion to  another ;  the  sole  occupation  of 
the  bards  being  their  preservation,  for 
which  purpose  they  commenced  repeat- 
ing them  by  rote,  from  an  early  age, 
until  they  were  indelibly  fixed  in  their 
memories.  Their  language  was  highly 
figurative,  often  approaching  the  sub- 
lime ;  and  their  imagery  well  depicted 
and  not  without  beauty.  Their  recita- 
tions, heightened  by  animated  gestures 
and  by  a  conciseness  and  euphony  of 
language,  or  a  wild,  plaintive  sadness, 
with  local  allusions,  like  the  inspiring 
strains  of  Gaelic  song,  swayed  with 
startling  effect  the  passions  of  their  un- 
tutored hearers. 

Songs  and  chants  were  common  among 
all  classes,  and  recited  by  strolling  mu- 
sicians as  panegyrics  on  occasions  of 
joy,  grief  or  worship.  Through  them 
the  knowledge  of  events  in  the  lives  of 
prominent  individuals  or  the  annals  of 
the  nation,  were  perpetuated.* 

The  Hawaiian  dialect,  from  its  great 


*  The  following  from  Ellis'  tour  through  Hawaii,  is 
a  specimen  of  their  mourntul  poetry  : 
Ue,  ue  !  ua  make  kuu  alii, 
Ua  make  kuu  haku,  kuu  hoa ; 
Kuu  hoa  i  ka  wa  o  ka  wi, 
Kuu  hoa  i  paa  ka  aina, 
Kuu  hoa  i  kuu  ilihune, 
Kuu  hoa  i  ka  ua  me  ka  makani, 
Kuu  hoa  i  ka  wela  a  ka  la, 
Kuu  hoa  i  ke  anu  a  ka  mauna, 
Kuu  hoa  i  ka  ino, 
Kuu  hoa  i  ka  malie, 
Kuu  hoa  i  na  kai  awalu  ; 
Ue,  ue  !  ua  hala  kuu  hoa, 
Aole  e  hoi  hou  mai. 

TRANSLATION. 

Alas,  alas !  dead  is  my  chief, 

Dead  is  my  lord  and  my  friend ; 

My  friend  in  the  season  of  famine, 

My  friend  in  the  time  of  drought, 

My  friend  in  poverty, 

My  friend  in  the  rain  and  the  wind, 

My  friend  in  the  heat  and  the  sun, 

My  friend  in  the  cold  from  the  mountain, 

My  friend  in  the  storm, 

My  friend  in  the  calm, 

My  friend  in  the  eight  seas ; 

Alas,  alas  !  gone  is  my  friend, 

And  no  more  will  return. 

5 


smoothness  and  multiplicity  of  vowels, 
is  admirably  adapted  for  this  kind  of 
poetry.  The  chief  art  lay  in  the  forma- 
tion of  short  metrical  sentences,  without 
much  regard  to  their  rhythmical  termina- 
tion, though  the  conclusion  of  each,  or 
the  end  of  several,  were  made  to  har- 
monize in  cadence.  So  popular  is  this 
form  of  expression,  that,  even  to  the 
present  day,  the  natives  repeat  their 
lessons,  orders  received,  or  scraps  of 
ancient  songs,  or  extemporize  in  this 
monotonous,  sing-song  tone,  for  hours 
together,  and  in  perfect  concord.  Mon- 
osyllables, dissyllables  and  trisyllables 
had  each  their  distinct  tune. 

Analogous  to  this  was  the  mournful 
au-we,  uttered  on  occasions  of  calamity 
and  death.  On  the  decease  of  a  great 
chief,  the  wail  was  commenced  at  his 
couch,  and  borne  from  one  individual  to 
another,  until  it  spread  over  the  island. 
Night  and  day  the  dismal  sound  was 
prolonged  ;  its  first  notes  low,  gradually 
swelling  until  one  full,  passionate  burst 
of  grief  filled  the  air,  and  resounded 
among  the  neighboring  rocks  and  hills, 
whose  echoes  threw  back  the  sorrowful 
cry.  During  the  night  its  effect,  as 
thus  borne  from  party  to  party,  from  one 
valley  to  another,  now  rising  into  almost 
a  shriek  of  bitterness,  then  subsiding 
into  a  low,  murmuring  sound,  was  start- 
ling and  impressive.  Watch-fires,  sur- 
rounded by  groups  of  both  sexes,  wailing 
and  weeping  violently,  tearing  their  hair, 
and  giving  way  to  other  barbarous  de- 
monstrations of  sorrow,  completed  the 
scene. 

The  same  expressions  were  also  ut- 
tered on  occasion  of  an  injury,  surprise, 
the  death  of  a  favorite  animal,  or  even 
any  trivial  disappointment.  Its  signifi- 


cation is, 


alas! 


to  sigh  or  to  have  a 
deep  affection."  Mourners  were  fre- 
quently hired  ;  and  the  same  party  could 
be  seen  one  moment  buried,  apparently, 
in  the  deepest  affliction,  and,  in  another, 
reveling  in  boisterous  mirth  about  their 
food,  while  their  places  were  supplied 
by  a  fresh  set. 

~;w,  or  boxing,  was  a  favorite 
national  game,  regulated  by  certain 
laws,  for  the  proper  execution  of  which 
managers  were  appointed,  and  umpires 
to  decide  upon  rival  claims.  A  spirit  of 


34 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


clanship  inspired  the  champions,  who 
usually  belonged  to  different  chiefs. 
The  victor  in  one  engagement  paced 
the  ring  in  triumph,  until  another  an- 
tagonist appeared.  The  final  conqueror 
received  the  highest  honors.  These 
boxing  matches  were  often  attended 
with  fatal  results.  The  spectators  de- 
lighted in  blows  that  brought  blood,  and 
stimulated  the  combatants  with  shouts 
and  yells  of  applause,  dancing  and  other 
wild  expressions  of  delight,  until,  as  it 
frequently  happened,  many  were  slain. 
Foot  races  were  common ;  the  king's 
messengers  attained  great  speed,  fre- 
quently making  the  circuit  of  Hawaii, 
three  hundred  miles  of  bad  road,  in  eight 
or  nine  days. 

Sliding  down  steep  hills,  on  a  smooth 
board,  was  a  common  amusement ;  but 
no  sport  afforded  more  delight  than 
bathing  in  the  surf.  Young  and  old, 
high  and  low,  of  both  sexes,  engaged  in 
it,  and  in  no  other  way  could  they  show 
greater  dexterity  in  their  aquatic  exer- 
cises. Multitudes  could  be  seen  when 
the  surf  was  highest,  pushing  boldly 
seaward,  with  their  surf-board  in  ad- 
vance, diving  beneath  the  huge  combers, 
as  they  broke  in  succession  over  them, 
until  they  reached  the  outer  line  of 
breakers ;  then  laying  flat  upon  their 
boards,  using  their  arms  and  legs  as 
guides,  they  boldly  mounted  the  loftiest, 
and,  borne  upon  its  crest,  rushed  with 
the  speed  of  a  race-horse  towards  the 
shore ;  from  being  dashed  upon  which, 
seemed  to  a  spectator  impossible  to  be 
avoided.  But  a  dexterous  movement 
turned  their  course  again  seaward,  or 
they  nimbly  slipped  off  their  boards, 
which  the  force  of  the  waves  threw  far 
up  the  rocks. 

The pahee  was  a  game  in  great  vogue. 
It  consisted  in  throwing,  or  rather 
glancing,  heavy  darts,  from  two  to  five 
feet  in  length,  along  a  level  floor,  pre- 
pared with  great  care  for  this  purpose. 
The  skill  consisted  in  the  nearness  to 
certain  marks  at  which  the  darts  were 
east.  Analogous  to  this  was  the  it 
maika,  a  species  of  bowling,  in  which  a 
circular  storie,  highly  polished,  with  flat 
sides,  was  used.  The  konane  was  an 
intricate  game  of  drafts,  played  with 
colored  stones,  upon  a  great  number  of 


squares.  The  puhenehene  consisted  in 
ecreting  a  stone  so  adroitly,  in  the  full 
gaze  of  all  present,  as  to  deceive  the 
watchers  in  their  guess  as  to  the  hiding 
place.  Five  loose  bundles  of  cloth  were 
prepared  for  this  design,  under  one  of 
which  the  stone  was  slipped. 

Hakoko,  wrestling  ;  loulou,  a  trial  of 
strength  by  hooking  the  fingers  ;  homi- 
honu,  swimming  with  the  hands  only, 
the  feet  being  fast  interlocked ;  uma,  a 
trial  of  the  strength  of  the  arms  ;  lele- 
kawa,  leaping  from  precipices  into  water ; 
lelekoali,  rope  swinging;  kulakalai — 
wrestling  in  the  sea — were  sports  in 
high  repute.  The  time,  kilu  and  papu- 
hene  were  of  an  impure  nature,  and  en- 
gaged in  only  under  veil  of  night. 

In  general,  games  were  seldom  prac- 
ticed except  for  the  purpose  of  gam- 
bling, to  which  they  were  inordinately 
addicted.  In  betting,  every  article  of 
lothing  or  property  was  staked,  and 
their  interest  only  stayed  by  the  ex- 
haustion of  their  means,  when  violent 
passions  were  usually  aroused,  and  fierce 
brawls  too  often  ensued. 

Dances  (hula)  were  of  various  charac- 
ter, sometimes  interspersed  with  chants 
relating  to  the  achievements  of  the  past 


A  MUSICIAN. 

or  present  rulers,  or  in  honor  of  the 
gods.  Such  was  the  hula  alaapapa. 
The  dancers  were  decorated  with  neck- 
laces of  human  hair,  supporting  orna- 
ments of  bone,  or  whale's  teeth.  Brace- 
lets and  buskins  of  net-work,  thickly  set 
with  the  teeth  of  dogs  or  hogs,  encircled 
their  wrists  and  ankles.  Their  motions 
were  sometimes  active,  sometimes  slow 
and  graceful,  and  in  perfect  time  with 
the  music  of  rude  drums,  made  from 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


35 


large  calabashes,  with  apertures  at  the 
top,  or  hollow  logs  tastefully  carved  and 
covered  at  the  ends  with  shark's  skin. 
The  former  were  alternately  beaten  with 
the  palms  of  the  hands,  and  struck  on 
the  ground,  on  which  cloth  was  laid. 
The  gesticulations  of  the  musicians  were 
violent,  and  they  also  joined  in  the 
chants. 

Dancing  was  as  universal  as  swim- 
ming ;  all,  of  every  age  and  character, 
engaging  in  it,  though  it  was  more  com- 
monly practiced  by  professional  dancers 
in  honor  of  the  gods,  or  for  the  amuse- 
ment of  the  chiefs.  The  dances  of  the 
latter  consisted  in  a  variety  of  uncouth 
motions  and  twistings  of  the  body,  of  too 
lascivious  a  nature  to  bear  description, 
and  were  generally  preparatory  to  bru- 
tal revels.  Their  costumes  were  in  con- 


CHILDREN'S  DANCE. 

formity  with  their  actions ;  garlands  of 
flowers,  necklaces  of  shells,  and  leis, 
beautiful  wreaths,  fabricated  from  red  or 
yellow  feathers,  encircled  the  limbs  of 
the  females.  Both  sexes  were  tatooed, 
though  not  to  such  an  extent  as  prevailed 
elsewhere.  The  dances  of  the  youth  were 
reported  to  be  graceful  and  pleasing. 

The  ceremonies  observed  on  the  death 
of  any  prominent  personage  were  ex- 
tremely barbarous.  The  hair  was  shaved 
or  cut  close,  teeth  knocked  out,  and 
sometimes  the  ears  were  mangled.  Some 
tatooed  their  tongues  in  a  correspond- 
ing manner  to  the  other  parts  of  their 
bodies.  These  customs  were  intended 
to  keep  alive  the  memory  of  the  de- 
ceased among  his  immediate  relatives 
and  retainers,  and  by  many,  the  affec- 
tion was  estimated  by  the  amount  of 
bodily  pain  endured.  Frequently  the 
flesh  was  cut  or  burnt,  eyes  scooped 
out,  and  other  even  more  painful  per- 


sonal outrages  inflicted.  But  those 
usages,  however  shocking  they  may  ap- 
pear, were  innocent,  compared  with  the 
horrid  saturnalia  which  immediately  fol- 
lowed the  death  of  a  chief  of  the  highest 
rank.  Then  the  most  unbounded  license 
prevailed ;  law  and  restraint  were  cast 
aside,  and  the  whole  people  appeared 
more  like  demons  than  human  beings. 
Every  vice  and  crime  was  allowed. 
Property  was  destroyed,  houses  fired, 
and  old  feuds  revived  and  revenged. 
Gambling,  thefts  and  murder  were  as 
open  as  the  day  ;  clothing  was  cast  aside 
as  a  useless  incumbrance  ;  drunkenness 
and  promiscuous  prostitution  prevailed 
throughout  the  land,  no  women,  except- 
ing the  widows  of  the  deceased,  being  ex- 
empt from  the  grossest  violation.  There 
was  no  passion,  however  lewd,  or  de- 
sire, however  wicked,  but  could  be  grat- 
ified with  impunity,  during  the  con- 
tinuance of  this  period,  which,  happily, 
from  its  own  violence,  soon  spent  itself. 
No  other  nation  was  ever  witness  to  a 
custom  which  so  entirely  threw  off  all 
moral  and  legal  restraints,  and  incited 
the  evil  passions  to  unresisted  riot  and 
wanton  debauchery. 

In  the  mechanical  arts  and  agricul- 
ture, the  Havvaiians  manifested  con- 
siderable ingenuity.  With  no  better  in- 
struments than  those  of  hard  stone,  shell 
or  bone,  they  made  large  and  fine  ca- 
noes, the  longest  of  which  were  sixty 
feet  in  length ;  built  neat  thatched 
houses ;  ingeniously  carved  wood  and 
stone,  and  manufactured  all  that  was 
necessary  for  their  domestic  purposes. 
The  mats  made  from  rushes  or  from  the 
leaves  of  the  pandanus,  were  very  use- 
ful, prettily  dyed,  and  of  great  size,  fine- 
ness and  beauty.  They  were  used  for 
beds,  screens,  partitions,  and  sometimes 
for  clothing.  In  their  cloth,  manufac- 
tured from  the^  morus  papyriferus, 
equal  skill  was  displayed.  It  was  of 
every  quality,  from  a  thick,  heavy  arti- 
cle, nearly  impervious  to  wind  or  water, 
to  a  more  delicate  and  almost  transparent 
fabric.  The  colors  were  various,  some 
so  prettily  stained  as  to  resemble  printed 
cloths.  Bowls  and  dishes,  made  from 
the  kou  tree,  were  very  beautiful,  and 
highly  valued.  But  the  most  useful  ar- 
ticle, and  one  which  can  be  applied  to 


36 


H1STOEY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


an  almost  endless  variety  of  purposes, 
is  the  fruit  of  the  cucurbita,  the  cala- 
bash or  gourd.  From  it,  their  drink- 
ing vessels,  dishes,  masks 
and  musical  instruments 
were  made.  It  still  sup- 
plies the  want  of  iron, 
glass,  crockery  and  wood- 
en ware.  In  journeys  it 
answers  for  a  trunk;  at 
home  for  a  closet.  They 
are  often  prettily  orna- 
mented  alter  the  same 
patterns  as  their  tapas,  and  are  of  every 
size,  from  the  smallest  water-cup,  to  the 
great  poi-dish,  capable  of  holding  ten 
gallons. 

The   houses   of  the   common  orders 
were  mere  hovels,  made  of  straw,  thatch- 


ed upon  a  light  wooden  frame.  They 
were  low,  small  and  damp,  and  generally 
filthy  within  and  without.  Those  of  the 
chiefs  were  better  and  neatly  kept. 

There  were  professed  trades ;  some 
men  being  expert  in  building  canoes, 
others  in  carving  and  framing  or  thatch- 
ing houses,  &c.  To  finish  the  corners 
or  the  roofs  of  houses,  properly  and 
handsomely,  was  a  difficult  art,  and  un- 
derstood but  by  few.  Generally,  every 
man  worked  at  all  as  his  wants  required. 
When  a  chief  ordered  a  dwelling  to  be 
erected,  his  tenants  were  required  to  take 
part  in  the  labor,  though  to  each  party 
a  distinct  work  was  allotted.  While 
some  went  to  the  mountains  to  procure 
the  timber  for  the  frame,  others  pulled 
grass  for  thatch,  or  made  the  twine  with 


DOUBLE   CANOE   WITH   MASKED   ROWERS. 


which  the  frame  was  to  be  held  together, 
and  the  thatch  fastened  on.  As  soon 
as  the  materials  were  gathered,  holes 
were  dug  for  the  posts,  the  timbers  of 
the  roof  grooved,  and  the  whole  frame 
set  up.  The  thatchers  then  performed 
their  part ;  and  in  this  manner  a  large 
house  could  be  commenced  and  finished 
within  three  days.  The  timber,  which 
was  often  of  great  size,  was  brought 
from  far  in  the  interior.  Burdens  were 
carried  on  poles,  supported  on  the  shoul- 
ders of  men  ;  the  friction  of  which  fre- 
quently caused  large  callous  swellings, 
greatly  disfiguring  the  form. 

The  best  built  houses  lasted  from  ten 
to  twelve  years  ;  the  common  not  more 
than  half  that  time.  For  such  a  climate, 


they  were  well  adapted  to  the  wants  of 
the  population,  though,  having  no  floors, 
obnoxious  to  damp  and  cold.  Those  of 
the  chiefs  were  enclosed  in  largs  yards, 
and  were  sometimes  raised  on  a  stone 
embankment,  which  rendered  them  much 
more  comfortable.  Around  the  princi- 
pal house  or  hall,  as  it  had  but  one 
room,  were  the  smaller  huts,  which 
served  for  eating  and  sleeping  apart- 
ments and  store-houses.  The  whole  re- 
sembled a  collection  of  hay-ricks. 

Before  a  new  house  was  occupied,  a 
number  of  superstitious  ceremonies  were 
performed,  to  exorcise  such  evil  spirits 
as  desired  to  dispute  the  possession  with 
the  rightful  owner.  Offerings  were 
made  to  the  gods,  and  presents  to  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


37 


priests,  who,  uttering  prayers,  and  per- 
forming divers  rites,  for  a  while  re- 
sided in  the  house ;  the  sanctity  derived 
from  their  occupancy  being  considered 
as  sufficient,  ever  after,  to  baffle  all  at- 
tempts of  malignant  beings,  or  the  in- 
cantations of  sorcerers. 

Clothing  was  of  the  simplest  nature. 
With  the  men,  it  consisted  of  a  small 
strip  of  cloth,  called  the  malo,  wound 
around  the  loins,  and  passed  between 
the  legs ;  that  of  the  women  was  the 
pauj  a  garment  attached  to  the  waist, 
and  reaching  to  the  knee.  Young  chil- 
dren, of  both  sexes,  went  naked,  as  also 
did  their  parents,  whenever  inclination 
prompted. 

JPoi,  the  principal  article  of  diet,  was 
prepared  from  the  kalo  plant.  The 
roots,  after  being  baked  under  ground, 
were  mashed  on  a  large  platter  by  a 
heavy  stone  pestle,  or  an  instrument 
made  of  lava,  resembling  a  stirrup,  and 
were  mixed  with  water,  until  a  thick 
paste  was  formed.  This  is  sometimes 
eaten  in  a  sweet  state,  but  generally  put 
aside  until  it  ferments,  in  which  condi- 
tion it  is  preferred.  It  is  a  highly  nutri- 
cious  substance,  though,  when  solely 
used,  has  a  tendency  to  produce  acrid 
humors.  The  labor  of  its  preparation, 
being  too  severe  for  females,  is  confined 
to  the  men. 

In  fishing,  they  were  very  expert, 
catching  their  prey  either  by  hooks  made 
from  pearl  shells,  or  in  nets,  some  of 
which  were  of  great  size  and  fine  work- 
manship. A  vegetable  poison  was  also 
used.  The  herb  containing  it  being 
stripped  of  its  bark,  and  bruised,  was 
placed  beneath  stones  where  the  fishes 
frequented,  which  soon  became  affected, 
sickened  and  rose  to  the  surface.  As 
soon  as  they  were  taken,  they  were 
cleaned,  to  prevent  the  poison  from 
spreading.  Fishes  were  usually  eaten 
raw,  and  in  the  state  in  which  they  were 
captured. 

The  manners  and  customs  of  these  sav- 
ages are  too  well  known  to  require  en- 
larged description.  If  their  arts  were  few 
and  simple,  so  were  their  wants.  The 
skill  displayed  in  supplying  them  is  suffi- 
cient to  excite  admiration,  and  exhibits 
mechanical  abilities,  which  since,  under 
better  auspices,  have  greatly  improved. 


A  small  commerce,  through  the  me- 
dium of  barter,  was  maintained  between 
some  of  the  islands.  The  tapas  of  Oahu 
were  exchanged  for  the  canoes  and  pad- 
dles of  Kauai.  On  Hawaii,  a  heavy, 
strong  tapa,  called  mamaki,  suitable  for 
cold  weather,  was  manufactured  and 
supplied  to  the  other  islands.  At  stated 
periods,  markets  or  fairs  were  held  in 
various  places.  The  most  celebrated 
resort  was  the  banks  of  the  Wailuku 
river,  in  the  district  of  Hilo,  Hawaii. 
Here,  inhabitants  from  all  portions  of 
the  island  assembled,  to  make  exchanges 
of  property.  Certain  districts  were 
noted  for  the  goodness  of  their  tapas  ; 
others,  for  their  mats,  live  stock,  or  ex- 
cellence of  their  poi,  or  dried  fish.  The 
peddlers  cried  their  wares,  which  were 
exhibited  in  piles  on  either  side  of  the 
stream,  according  to  certain  rules.  When 
a  bargain  was  in  negotiation,  the  articles 
were  deposited  on  a  particular  rock, 
where  they  could  be  mutually  examined 
in  the  presence  of  inspectors,  who  were 
appointed  as  aibiters  in  cases  of  dispute, 
and  also  acted  as  a  police  for  the  pre- 
servation of  order,  receiving  a  remuner- 
ation for  their  services.  A  toll  was 
required  from  all  who  crossed  the  river. 

The  Hawaiian  method  of  computation 
resembled  the  ancient  Atzec.  It  was 
simple  and  regular,  and  sufficient  for 
the  wants  of  an  unlettered  race,  which 
seldom  had  occasion  to  express  any 
complex  combination  of  numbers.  From 
one  to  ten  was  as  follows  :  akahi,  alua, 
akolu,  aha,  alima,  aono,  ahiku,  awalu, 
aitca,  umi;  eleven,  was  ten  and  one, 
umikumamakahi,  kumama  being  the 
conjunctive ;  twelve,  umikumamaliia, 
and  so  on  until  twenty,  which  was  ex- 
pressed by  a  new  term,  iwakalua; 
twenty-one,  iwakaluakumamakahi,  etc. ; 
thirty  was  kanakoluj  thirty-one,  kana- 
kolukumamakahi,  etc. ;  forty,  kan  aha  ; 
they .  then  commenced  with  one,  and 
counted  to  forty  again.  A  combination 
of  terms  were  sufficient  to  express  all 
numbers  short  of  four  hundred,  for  which 
a  new  word  was  required.  Fifty  was 
kanaha  me  ka  umi,  forty  and  ten  ; 
sixty,  akahi  kanaha  me  ka  iwakalua, 
one  forty  and  twenty,  and  so  on ;  eighty 
was  elua  kanaha,  two  forties ;  one  hun- 
dred was  elua  kanaha  me  ka  iwaka- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


lua,  two  forties  and  twenty;  six  hun- 
dred, hookahi  lau  a  me  na  kanaka 
elima,  one  four  hundred  and  five  forties; 
ten  thousand,  alua  mano  me  na  lau 
elima,  two  4000's  and  five  400's.* 

In  this  system  four  is  assumed  as  the 
lowest  collection  of  numbers,  and  the 
basis  of  classification  ;  the  regular  scale 
being  graduated  from  four  to  four  hun- 
dred thousand  ;  each  step  multiplied  by 
ten.  Thus : 

Aha  kahi,       four  units   made  1  kauna,    4 
TJmi  kauna,    ten  4's  "     1  kanaha,  40 

Umi  kanaha,  ten  40'a  "      1  lau,         400 

TJmi  lau,  ten  400's  "  1  mano,  4,000 
Umi  mano,  ten  4,000's  ••  1  kini,  40,000 
Umikini,  ten  40,000's  "  1  lehu,  400,000 

Beyond  this  last  number  their  ideas 
became  confused  ;  though  the  term  na- 
lowale,  which  means,  out  of  sight,  or 
lost,  was  sometimes  employed,  as  ex- 
pressing ten  lehu,  or  four  millions. 
IS  umbers  beyond  their  power  of  reckon- 
ing or  exceedingly  great  and  indefinite, 
were  expressed  by  the  repetition  of  the 
words  kini  and  lehu,  as  kmikini,  leJiu- 
lehu.  To  reduce  English  computation 
to  the  Hawaiian,  it  is  only  necessary  to 
divide  by  four,  and  vice  versa,  to  mul- 
tiply by  the  same  number.  This  an- 
cient method  is  now  rapidly  giving  way 
to  the  decimal  system,  introduced  by 
the  missionaries  in  their  schools.  The 
larger  numbers  are  formed  from  the 
English  terms ;  thus,  one  hundred  ac- 
commodated to  the  Hawaiian  idiom,  is 
haneri ;  thousand,  tausani  j  million, 
miliona,  &c. 

The  knowledge  and  use  of  medicinal 
herbs  was  said  to  have  been  a  gift  from 
the  gods  to  a  man  named  Koleamoku, 
who  taught  them  to  two  disciples.  After 
their  death  they  were  deified,  and  to 
them  the  prayers  of  the  doctors  were 
addressed.  The  doctors  were  a  dis- 
tinct class  of  priests  or  sorcerers,  who 
generally  confined  the  knowledge  of 
their  art  to  their  own  families,  and  thus 
made  the  employment,  which  was  lucra- 
tive, hereditary.  They  were  called  ka- 
huna lapaau  mai,  "man  or  priest  to 
heal  sickness."  Their  practice  was  a 
compound  of  superstitious  ceremonies, 
and  an  injudicious  use  of  medicines  and 
surgery.  Their  materia  medica  consist- 
ed exclusively  of  vegetable  substances, 
*  Hawaiian  Spectator,  vol.  2,  p.  91. 


variously  prepared ;  sometimes  by  being 
cooked,  but  often  simply  bruised  with  a 
stone.  Their  knowledge  of  the  medi- 
cinal properties  of  herbs  was  considera- 
ble, though  fatal  results  frequently  en- 
sued from  their  prescriptions.  They 
feigned  a  knowledge  of  internal  dis- 
orders by  external  examination,  and 
also  the  power  to  ward  off  sickness. 
Healthy  individuals  frequently  fell  vic- 
tims to  their  pretended  skill,  being  in- 
duced to  take  large  quantities  of  a  liquid 
compounded  from  the  pulp  and  stems  of 
the  calabash  vine,  which  operates  as  a 
powerful  cathartic.  Patients  were  steam- 
ed over  ovens  of  hot  stones,  or  held  over 
the  smoke  of  fires  prepared  from  green 
succulent  herbs.  Friction  was  greatly 
used  to  mitigate  minor  pains  ;  stones  of 
twelve  pounds  weight  and  upwards  were 
rolled  over  the  afflicted  parts,  or  violent 
manual  exercise  employed.  In  setting 
limbs  they  were  sometimes  successful, 
though  more  from  accident  than  skill ; 
but  in  all  complicated  fractures,  or  dan- 
gerous illnesses,  their  services  were  worse 
than  useless. 

An  individual,  who  hired  one  of  this 
class,  was  supposed  to  have  it  in  his 
power  to  afflict  his  enemies  with  painful 
diseases,  and  even  cause  their  deaths  ; 
also,  to  be  enabled  to  discover  the  au- 
thor of  his  own  maladies,  and  retort 
them  upon  the  aggressor.  It  might  be 
reasonably  conjectured  that  powers  be- 
lieved to  be  capable  of  such  varied  and 
counteracting  influences,  would,  from 
the  natural  fear  of  all  parties,  be  little 
employed.  But  savage  passions  seldom 
calculate  results  :  revenge  is  dearer  than 
everything  else.  Hence  they  found 
plentiful  employment,  notwithstanding 
the  largesses  required.  Their  influence 
was  strongest  over  the  lower  orders ; 
probably  fear  of  open  revenge  prevented 
them  from  testing  their  skill  on  power- 
ful chiefs,  who  were  besides  their  most 
valuable  patrons.  Deaths,  not  the  re- 
sult of  accident,  were  attributed  either 
to  their  agency,  poison,  or  to  the  anger 
of  some  unpropitious  deity. 

The  ceremonies  practiced  were  va- 
rious ;  the  most  common  was  similar  to 
that  for  the  discovery  of  thieves.  It 
was  called  I&uniahi,  "broiling  fire,"  and 
was  used  to  discover  the  authors  of  in- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


39 


jurious  incantations  and  sickness.  None 
but  the  parties  concerned  were  allowed 
to*  enter  the  house  selected  for  the  occa- 
sion. Near  the  invalid,  a  fire  was  kin- 
dled, and  covered  with  stones.  A  dog, 
hog  or  fowl  was  killed,  emboweled,  and 
placed  upon  the  heated  oven.  Dur- 
ing this  operation  the  priests  muttered 
prayers.  A  small  portion  of  the  broiled 
meat  was  eaten  by  him,  and  the  re- 
mainder left  to  be  consumed.  He  then 
feigned  sleep,  and  in  visions  to  receive 
answers  to  his  orisons,  by  which  he  in- 
formed his  patient  who  or  what  occa- 
sioned his  illness.  Additional  prayers 
and  offerings  were  then  required,  that 
the  disease  might  fasten  itself  upon  its 
author,  or  to  remove  the  anger  of  the 
god  who  sent  it.  If  the  priest  said  he 
had  not  been  successful,  and  had  re- 
ceived no  revelation,  he  recommended 
another  trial ;  which  advice  was  com- 
monly followed,  though  not  always  to 
his  satisfaction  ;  a  rival  being  frequently 
sent  for  to  exert  his  influence.  Each 
had  different  methods,  upon  the  degree 
of  popularity  of  which  their  fame  de- 
pended ;  and,  like  civilized  quacks,  they 
were  anxious  to  extend  the  reputation  of 
their  remedies,  at  the  expense  of  their 
less  bold  or  skillful  brethren.  As  might 
be  expected,  they  inculcated  the  belief 
that  the  success  of  their  experiments  de- 
pended greatly  upon  the  amount  of  of- 
ferings. 

The  manner  of  burial  differed  accord- 
ing to  the  rank  of  the  deceased.  The 
bodies  of  the  common  people  were  bent 
with  the  face  upon  the  knees,  arms  be- 
neath them,  and  the  hands  passed  up 
between  the  legs  ;  the  heads,  hands  and 
knees  were  closely  bound  together  with 
cord,  and  the  corpses  enveloped  in 
coarse  mats,  and  buried  within  two  days 
of  decease.  Those  of  the  priests  and 
inferior  chiefs  were  laid  out  straight, 
and  wrapped  in  folds  of  cloth.  The 
former  were  generally  interred  within 
their  temples,  their  graves  being  mark- 
ed by  piles  of  stones  or  rough  wooden 
enclosures.  The  legs,  arms,  bones,  and 
sometimes  the  skulls,  of  the  high  chiefs 
whose  ancestors  had  received  the  honors 
of  deification,  or  who  were  themselves 
to  be  enrolled  in  the  calendar  of  gods, 
reserved,  and  the  remainder  of 


their  bodies  buried  or  burnt.  The  relics 
were  carefully  covered  with  crimson 
cloth,  and  either  deposited  in  temples, 
for  adoration,  or  remained  in  possession 
of  the  nearest  relations,  by  whom  they 
were  held  sacred  ;  the  spirits  of  the  de- 
parted being  supposed  to  remain  with 
them,  exercising  a  controlling  and  pro- 
tecting influence  over  the  living. 

Caverns  were  generally  selected  as 
places  of  sepulture,  and  the  remains  of 
many  successive  generations  deposited 
in  the  same.  These  were  frequently 
embalmed  by  a  rude  method,  the  brains 
and  entrails  being  taken  out.  As  with 
the  dead  of  the  Indians  of  North  Amer- 
ica, their  property  and  food  were  de- 
posited with  them,  which  were  to  serve 
them  in  their  journeys  to  the  world  of 
spirits.  Enclosures,  surrounded  by  high 
stone  walls,  were  also  employed,  each 
family  generally  possessing  a  distinct 
cemetery;  though  sometimes  the  dead 
of  a  whole  town  were  deposited  in  the 
same  cave.  The  floors  of  their  own 
houses  were  used  by  some  as  graves  ; 
but  a  great  fear  prevailed  of  the  shades 
of  the  departed,  whose  apparitions  were 
supposed  to  hover  about  their  final 
resting-places,  and  injure  those  who 
came  within  their  reach.  In  conse- 
quence of  this  ghostly  dread,  burials 
were  conducted  in  a  private  manner, 
and  in  the  night.  A  portion  of  the  bones 
of  the  worshipers  of  Pele  were  thrown 
into  the  crater,  that  they  might  continue 
in  the  society  of  the  volcanic  deities, 
and  induce  them  to  protect  their  living 
relatives  from  eruptions. 

The  fishermen  believed  to  some  ex- 
tent in  transmigration,  and  frequently 
cast  their  dead  into  the  sea  to  be  de- 
voured by  sharks.  Their  souls  were 
supposed  ever  after  to  animate  those 
fishes,  and  incline  them  to  respect  the 
bodies  of  the  living,  should  accident 
ever  throw  them  into  their  power. 

The  Hawaiian  calendar  was  based 
upon  a  very  superficial  knowledge  of 
astronomy  ;  the  year  being  divided  into 
two  seasons  of  six  months  each,  sum- 
mer and  winter,  according  to  the  length 
of  the  days  and  the  productiveness  of 
the  vegetable  kingdom.  The  summer 
months  were,  Ikiiki,  "May,"  Kaaona, 
Hinaiaeleele,  Kamahoemua-t  Kama- 


\ 


40 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


hoehope,  and  Ikuat  "  October  :  "  those 
of  the  winter,  Welehu,  Makalii,  Ka~ 
elo,  Kaulua,  Nana  and  Welo.  The 
year  commenced  with  Makaliit  "  De- 
cember," and  terminated  with  Welehu, 
"  November."  They  reckoned  but  nine 
times  forty  nights  in  their  years,  and 
appear  to  have  had  no  idea  of  the  neces- 
sity of  intercalary  days  to  cause  it  to 
correspond  to  the  true  solstices.  Each 
month  contained  thirty  nights :  the  dif- 
ferent days  and  nights  derived  their 
names  from  the  varying  aspects  of  the 
moon,  according  to  her  age.  The  first 
night  was  Uilo,  "  to  twist,"  because  the 
moon  was  then  a  mere  thread ;  the  next, 
Hoaka,  "crescent; "  then Kukahi,  Ku- 
lua,  &c.  In  the  moon's  first  quarter, 
when  the  sharp  points  were  lost,  the 
night  was  called  Huna,  "  to  conceal ;  " 
the  succeeding,  when  it  became  convex, 
"  to  spread  out ;  "  the  next, 
to  increase  ;"  when  it  was  quite 
rotund,  Akua,  "  clear ;  "  when  nearly 
and  quite  full,  Hoku,  Mahealani,  and 
I&du.  Upon  the  first  decrease,  Laau- 
kukahij  and  as  it  continued  to  diminish, 
Olaaiikidua,  Laaupau,  Olekukahi, 
Olekulua,  Olepau,  Kaloakukahi,  Ka- 
loakulua,  Kaloapau.  When  it  had 
almost  disappeared,  Mauli,  "  overshad- 
owed ; "  when  entirely  gone,  Miiku, 
*•  cut  off."  During  every  month,  four 
periods  were  set  apart,  in  which  the 
nights  were  consecrated,  or  made  taboo. 
The  duration  of  each  varied  from  two  to 
four  nights,  and  they  were  called  the 
JKapii-ku,  "  the  proper  taboo,"  Kapu- 
hua,  "fruit  taboo,"  Jfapu-kalua,  "cook- 
ing taboo,"  and  Kapu-lcane,  "man 
taboo."  Their  astrologers  were  acquaint- 
ed with  Jupiter,  Mercury,  Venus,  Mars 
and  Saturn,  and  also  had  names  for 
many  fixed  stars  and  constellations. 

The  only  approach  towards  repre- 
senting language,  or  ideas,  symbolically, 
was  in  the  rude  scratches  or  carvings 
of  lines,  semi-circles,  imitations  of  the 
human  figure  and  other  rough  deline- 
ations, occasionally  met  with  on  rocks. 
These  were  done  by  travelers,  and  were 
intended  to  record  their  number,  dots 


being  used  for  that  purpose,  and  rings  to 
denote  those  who  had  circumambulated 
the  island;  if  a  semi-circle,  it  showed 
that  the  party  had  returned  from  the 
place  where  it  was  made.  Figures  of 
fish  and  fruit  denoted  some  particular 
success  in  the  supply  at  that  spot.* 

Beside  these  scrawls,  which  can 
scarcely  be  admitted  as  an  exception, 
the  language  was  strictly  oral.  Its  chief 
peculiarities  were  the  simple  construction 
of  words,  predominancy  of  vowels,  uni- 
form termination  and  shortness  of  sylla- 
bles, which  were  never  composed  of  more 
than  three  letters,  and  generally  of  but 
two,  while  very  many  have  but  one.  A 
vowel  terminating  every  word  and  sylla- 
ble, renders  the  language  peculiarly  soft 
and  harmonious.  Its  sounds  are  few  and 
simple,  twelve  letters  only  being  required 
to  represent  those  purely  Hawaiian.  Of 
these,  when  reduced  to  writing,  the  vow- 
els received  the  sound  peculiar  to  them 
in  the  principal  languages  of  the  conti- 
nent of  Europe,  while  the  consonants, 
H,  R,  L,  M,  N,  P,  W,  retained  the  Eng- 
lish accent.  It  is  difficult  for  an  adult 
Hawaiian  to  pronounce  two  consonants 
without  a  vowel  between  them.  Lat- 
terly, many  words  and  sounds  have  been 
introduced,  which  require  other  letters 
of  the  English  alphabet,  and  the  language 
will,  as  intercourse  with  foreigners  in- 
creases, become  further  modified.  The 
vowel  terminations  are  invariably  retain- 
ed. There  are  many  dipthongs,  though, 
generally,  two  vowels  coming  together 
retain  their  distinct  and  separate  sounds. 
Though  the  letters  K  and  L  only  occur 
in  writing,  in  conversation  K  and  T,  or 
L,  R  and  D,  are  synonymous.  The  na- 
tives of  some  districts  using  the  latter, 
others  the  former;  as  Kauai  or  Tauai, 
Lanai  or  Ranai,  Lono  or  Rono,  Lii-lii, 
Rii-rii  or  Dii-dii.  To  this  variableness 
in  the  use  of  these  letters,  is  owing  the 
difference  of  spelling  among  foreigners, 
of  those  words  which  have  become  al- 
most incorporated  with  the  English  lan- 
guage— as  kapu  and  tabu,  kalo  and  taro, 
kapa  and  tapa,  and  others. 


'Ellis'  Tour  through  Hawaii,  p.  431. 


HISTORY   OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


41 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Physical  appearance  of  the  HawaJians — Chiefs — Hab- 
its of — Common  people — "Women — Marriage  —Affin- 
ities of  blood — Friendships — Salutation — Cannibal- 
ism—Intemperance— Treatment  of  sick— Lunatics 
—Aged— Infanticide— Examples  of— Treatment  of 
womi--n — Taboos  of  food — General  character  of  the 
Hawaiians  previous  to  contact  with  the  whites. 

HAVING  in  the  preceding  chapter 
sketched  an  outline  of  the  original  po- 
litical and  religious  condition  of  the  Ha- 
waiians, it  remains  to  speak  more  par- 
ticularly of  their  social  relations,  before 
entering  upon  their  political  history. 
Between  the  higher  and  lower  orders 
there  existed  a  marked  difference  in 
stature  and  appearance.  The  former 
were  almost  invariably  tall,  stout  and 
well  formed,  with,  as  age  advanced,  a 
tendency  to  unwieldy  corpulency  :  the 
latter  were,  upon  the  average,  middle 
sized,  falling  somewhat  short  of  the 
European  standard.  Six  feet  and  up- 
wards were  common  to  the  stature  of 
the  chiefs  of  both  sexes,  with  gigantic 
frames,  more  capable  of  exerting  great 
strength  than  of  endurance.  It  was  said 
of  some  that  they  were  able,  by  taking 
a  man  by  the  head  and  leg,  to  break  his 
back  across  their  knees.  From  three  to 
four  hundred  pounds  was  not  an  un- 
common weight.  The  female  chiefs, 
when  young,  possessed  interesting  and 
intelligent  features,  which,  however,  soon 
became  lost,  as  their  bulk  increased; 
fortunately  for  them,  in  the  eyes  of  their 
lords,  this  but  heightened  their  charms. 
When  these  were  most  matured,  they 
became  almost  as  helpless  as  the  belles 
of  the  Celestial  empire.  The  latter 
tottered  from  want  of  feet  of  sufficient 
size  to  support  frames  of  scarcely  larger 
proportions  ;  those  of  the  former,  though 
stout,  were  equally  feeble  to  sustain  the 
immense  bulk  above.  Their  flesh  hung 
in  deep  folds  about  them ;  their  walk 
was  a  majestic  stagger ;  but  their  car- 
riage was  lofty,  and  betokened  an  innate 
pride  of  birth  and  rank. 

No  aristocracy  was  ever  more  dis- 
tinctly marked  by  nature.  As  before 
remarked,  to  a  superficial  observer,  they 
might,  with  reason,  have  appeared  as  a 
distinct  race.  The  monopoly  they  en- 
joyed of  the  good  gifts  of  Providence, 
with  the  greater  exercise  of  their  mental 
faculties,  for  they  did  most  of  the  think- 
6 


ing  for  the  people,  served,  every  genera- 
tion, to  increase  the  distinction  between 
the  two  classes.  The  great  personal 
size  was  doubtless  partly  inherited,  and 
partly  the  result  of  early  care.  The 
young  chiefs,  unless  they  otherwise  de- 
sired, were  always  borne  on  the  shoul- 
ders of  attendants  ;*  their  only  exercises 
were  games,  sufficient  to  excite  and 
amuse,  without  greatly  fatiguing;  no 
care  or  toil  was  theirs ;  the  abundance 
of  the  land  and  sea  was  at  their  disposal ; 
and,  from  the  quantity  they  daily  con- 
sumed, particularly  of  that  most  nutri- 
tious diet,  poi,  it  is  not  surprising  they 
gave  such  material  evidences  of  their 
training.  After  a  surfeit — a  common 
case — menials  were  always  ready  to  do 
that  for  the  system,  which,  otherwise, 
active  exercise  only  could  have  effected. 
Servants  were  especially  trained  to  lomi- 
lomi — a  luxurious  kneading  or  sham- 
pooing, and  stretching  and  cracking  the 
joints,  exceedingly  pleasant  withal,  and 
operating  as  a  gentle  and  refreshing  ex- 
ercise. The  fatter  the  chiefs,  the  more 
they  required  this  operation. 

Their  common  position  was  reclining 
upon  divans  of  fine  mats,  surrounded  by 
a  retinue,  devoted  solely  to  their  phys- 
ical gratification.  Some  fanned,  brush- 
ed away  insects  and  held  spittoons  ; 
others  fed  them,  lomi-lomied,  or  dressed 
their  hair  or  persons.  In  short,  the  ex- 
tremes of  activity  or  laziness,  temper- 
ance or  sensuality,  were  wholly  at  their 
option.  Ambition  and  apathy,  super- 
stition and  avarice,  love  and  pleasure, 
by  turns  controlled  them ;  and  war, 
priestcraft  and  oppression,  varied  by  oc- 
casional acts  of  good  nature,  or  the 
ebullitions  of  innate  benevolence,  which 
even  such  an  education  could  not  wholly 
eradicate,  were  the  lot  of  their  subjects. 

Among  them  a  considerable  degree 
of  physical  beauty  existed,  though  em  a 
less  noble  scale.  A  few  might  be  seen 
who  were  models  of  active  grace,  but 


*A  favorite  method  of  conveyance  once  existed, 
called  manele  ;  a  rude  palanquin  borne  on  the  shoul- 
ders of  four  or  more  men.  But  it  became  unfashiona- 
ble, from  the  following  circumstance :  A  certain  ex- 
tremely corpulent  chief  of  Kauai,  remarkable  for  his 
crabbed,  petulant  disposition,  compelled  hw  earners 
to  take  him  up  and  down  the  steepest  precipices ;  his 
amusement  and  satisfaction  being  proportionate  with 
the  difficulty  of  the  task.  However,  they  retorted  one 
day,  and  relieved  themselves  of  their  burden  by  pitch- 
ing him  headlong  over  the  steep,  which  put  an  end  to 
him  and  the  custom. 


42 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


their  general  appearance  was  that  of 
"hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water." 
They  were  supple,  hardy  and  inured  to 
toil;  yet,  either  from  the  debilitating  ef- 
fects of  the  climate,  or  a  positive  phys- 
ical inferiority,  the  result  of  difference 
of  food  and  living,  incapable  of  the  same 
endurance  as  the  Caucasian  race. 

At  the  present  epoch,  the  general 
cast  of  features  prevailing  among  the 
whole  group,  is  similar  to  that  of  all 
Polynesia,  and  analogous  to  the  Malay, 
to  which  family  of  the  human  race  they 
doubtless  belong.  A  considerable  va- 
riety in  color  exists,  from  a  light  olive 
to  an  almost  African  black ;  the  hair  is 
coarse  and  equally  dissimilar,  varying 
from  the  straight,  long  black,  or  dark 
brown,  to  the  crispy  curl  peculiar  to  the 


negro.  This  latter  is  comparatively 
rare,  though  white  hair  among  children 
is  common.  A  broad,  open,  vulgarly  good 
humored  countenance  prevails  among 
the  males,  and  a  more  pleasing  and  en- 
gaging look  with  the  females,  but  both 
bespeak  the  predominance  of  animal 
passions.  Many  of  the  latter,  when 
young,  are  not  unattractive.  Though 
farther  from  the  equator,  both  sexes  are 
some  shades  darker  than  the  Tahitians, 
Marquesans,  or  Ascension  islanders;  all 
of  whom  excel  them  in  personal  beauty. 
As  with  them,  a  fullness  of  the  nostril, 
without  the  peculiar  flatness  of  the 
negro,  and  a  general  thickness  of  lips, 
prominent  and  broad  cheek  bones,  and 
narrow,  high  and  retreating  foreheads, 
resembling  the  Asiatic,  predominate. 


Instances  of  deformity  are  not  more  com- 
mon than  in  civilized  life.  Their  teeth 
are  white,  firm  and  regular ;  but  their 
eyes  are  generally  bloodshot,  which 
once  was  considered  a  personal  attrac- 
tion. The  hands  of  the  females  are  soft 
and  well  made,  with  tapering  fingers. 
At  maturity,  which  takes  place  from  ten 
to  twelve  years  of  age,  they  present 
slight  figures,  which  however  soon  dis- 
appear and  are  succeeded  by  stoutness, 
which  in  their  eyes  is  the  greater  charm. 
No  regular  marriage  ceremonies  ex- 
isted, though,  on  such  occasions,  it  was 
customary  for  the  bridegroom  to  cast  a 
piece  of  cloth  on  the  bride,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  her  family.  A  feast  was  then 
furnished  by  the  friends  of  both  parties. 
The  number  of  wives  depended  upon  the 


inclination  of  the  man,  and  his  ability  to 
support  them.  Though  the  common 
men  usually  lived  with  one  woman,  who 
performed  household  labors,  no  binding- 
tie  existed ;  each  party  consulting  their 
wishes  for  change,  joining  or  separating, 
as  they  agreed  or  disagreed.  As  a 
general  thing,  there  was  no  such  senti- 
ment as  chastity ;  sensual  desires  were 
gratified  as  choice  prompted  ;  their  only 
rules  being  their  wishes,  modified  by 
jealousy  or  fear.  The  very  reverse  of 
Christian  morality  prevailed  in  this  re- 
spect, for  it  was  considered  a  meanness 
for  a  man  or  woman  to  refuse  a  solici- 
tation for  sensual  gratification.  Visitors 
of  equal  or  greater  rank  than  their  host? 
were  accommodated  with  wromen,  as  a 
necessary  exercise  of  hospitality.  But 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


43 


the  wives  of  the  chiefs  were  guarded 
with  great  care,  to  prevent  their  indulg- 
ing in  too  great  license. 

Some  sentiments  relative  to  connubial 
fidelity  prevailed  which  may  be  said  to 
have  bordered  on  morality,  or  rather 
served  in  this  respect  to  distinguish  them 
from  the  mere  brute.  The  idea  con- 
nected with  marriage  in  their  minds  is 
well  indicated  by  the  term  used  to  ex- 
press it — hoao — literally  to  try  one  an- 
other. After  the  parties  had  lived  to- 
gether awhile  mutually  pleased,  it  was 
considered  disgraceful  to  separate,  though 
it  was  common  for  those  without  children 
to  do  so ;  children  being  considered  a 
strong  link,  not  so  much  for  fidelity  as 
for  perpetuity.  Wives  on  the  slightest 
suspicion  of  their  husbands  were  subject 
to  very  cruel  treatment,  and  were  often 
severely  injured.  Even  Kamehameha's 
queens  formed  no  exception  to  this  sys- 
tem of  family  discipline,  and  the  highest 
females  of  the  land  bore  marks  about 
their  persons  of  the  jealous  brutality  of 
their  lords. 

Adultery,  without  the  consent  of  the 
husband,  was  viewed  as  a  crime.  Kame- 
hameha,  in  1809,  strangled  Kanihonui, 
a  high  chief,  for  this  offence  with  Kaa- 
humanu,  even  at  the  risk  of  a  rebellion  ; 
and  later  still,  suspecting  one  of  his 
priests  of  a  similar  practice,  he  laid  a 
trap  for  him  by  which  he  was  exposed. 
He  was  immediately  executed. 

Children  were  betrothed  when  quite 
young,  and  were  then  sacredly  guarded 
by  their  parents  from  intercourse  with 
others ;  a  practice  which  being  quite 
common,  operated  as  some  restraint  on 
universal  licentiousness.  Common  and 
frequent  prostitution  was  considered  in 
some  degree  disreputable,  and  it  was 
enjoined  by  the  better  class  of  parents 
on  their  sons  to  avoid  it. 

Family  alliances  among  the  chiefs, 
or,  more  properly  speaking,  connections, 
were  of  the  most  intricate  and  shocking 
nature.  Custom  obliged  the  highest 
chief  to  marry  the  next  in  rank ;  con- 
sequently, brothers  and  sisters,  full 
cousins,  nieces  and  unclest  nephews 
and  aunts,  frequently  exercised  towards 
each  other  the  relations  of  husband  and 
wife.  The  most  complex  affinities  arose 
from  this  unnatural  law.  This  resulted 


rather  from  an  arbitrary  political  cus- 
tom than  desire,  as  incest  in  general 
was  considered  disgraceful.  Jn  such 
cases  the  parties  cohabited  but  seldom, 
and  frequently  the  marriage  was  scarcely 
more  than  nominal.  The  highest  fe- 
male chiefs  enjoyed  the  same  connubial 
privileges  as  to  the  selection  and  num- 
ber of  those  of  the  other  sex.  Some- 
times father  and  son  were  husbands  of 
the  same  wife. 

Notwithstanding  this  general  sexual 
laxity,  instances  of  love  and  affection 
were  not  uncommon.  The  exchange  of 
names  was  the  strongest  proof  of  friend- 
ship ;  and  a  partiality  thus  established 
entitled  the  recipients  mutually  to  ex- 
ercise the  utmost  freedom  of  persons  or 
property.  If  they  were  chiefs,  their  de- 
pendents acknowledged  this  ideal  rela- 
tionship, by  the  same  homage  and  ser- 
vices. Or,  if  a  chief  thus  adopted  an 
inferior,  his  influence  in  household  mat- 
ters was  scarcely  less  than  his  patrons. 
An  embrace  with  the  noses  touching, 
was  the  most  affectionate  mode  of  salu- 
tation. 

Some  doubt  formerly  existed  whether 
cannibalism  ever  prevailed  in  the  group. 
The  natives  themselves  manifested  a 
degree  of  shame,  horror  and  confusion, 
when  questioned  upon  the  subject,  that 
led  Cook  and  his  associates,  without  any 
direct  evidence  of  the  feet,  to  believe  in 
its  existence ;  but  later  voyagers  disputed 
this  conclusion.  The  confessions  of 
their  own  historians,  and  the  general 
acknowledgment  of  the  common  people, 
have  now  established  it  beyond  a  doubt; 
though,  for  some  time  previous  to  Cook's 
visit,  it  had  gradually  decreased,  until 
scarcely  a  vestige,  if  any,  of  the  horrible 
custom  remained.  This  humanizing  im- 
provement, so  little  in  accordance  with 
their  other  customs,  was  a  pleasing  trait 
in  their  national  character.  It  may  have 
been  the  result  of  instruction  and  ex- 
ample derived  from  the  earliest  Euro- 
pean visitors,  or  a  self-convjction  of  its 
own  abomination.  Be  that  as  it  may,  a 
public  sentiment  of  disgust  in  regard  to 
it  prevailed  at  that  period,  highly  credit- 
able to  them  as  a  nation,  and  distin- 
!  guished  them  from  their  cotemporaries 
I  of  New  Zealand,  the  Marquesas,  and 
i  even  from  the  more  polished  Tahitiac. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


Many  generations  gone  by,  it  was  not 
uncommon  for  them  to  indulge,  after  the 
close  of  a  battle,  in  the  fierce  and  bloody 
delight  of  roasting  their  slain  enemies, 
and  devouring  their  flesh  like  ravenous 
wild  dogs,  as  the  sweetest  and  most  glo- 
rifying consummation  of  revenge.  Later 
still,  it  was  confined  to  certain  robber 
chieftains,  who  infested  mountain  paths, 
and  the  recesses  of  forests,  from  which 
they  sallied  forth — the  terror  of  the  less 
ferocious  inhabitants — slaying,  plunder- 
ing, and  gorging,  like  vultures,  upon  the 
flesh  of  their  victims.  As  of  the  ghouls, 
and  monstrous  creations  of  eastern  tales, 
a  superstitious  dread  of  their  haunts  pre- 
vailed, which  the  marvelous  tales  spread 
abroad  of  their  prowess  and  cruelty, 
served  to  increase.  The  warrior  became 
famous  who  dared  beard  these  "  lions 
in  their  dens."  If  successful,  his  name, 
with  all  the  eclat  of  the  knight  errant 
of  the  days  of  chivalry,  was  celebrated 
in  song  and  dance  for  many  generations. 

In  the  use  oi  awa,  a  liquor  manufac- 
tured from  the  piper  methysticum^  the 
chiefs  were  exceedingly  intemperate. 
Its  effects  were  very  pernicious,  cover- 
ing the  body  with  a  white  scurf,  or  scali- 
ness,  like  the  scurvy,  inflaming  the  eyes, 
and  causing  premature  decrepitude,  it 
was  also  taken  as  a  medicine,  and  was 
supposed  to  be  an  effectual  remedy  for 
corpulence.  No  other  intoxicating  liquor 
was  known. 

Lunatics  were  occasionally  treated 
with  attention  and  respect,  being  sup- 
posed to  be  inspired  by  some  god ;  but 
more  commonly  they  shared  the  fate  of 
the  aged  and  sick,  as  objects  of  con- 
tempt, ridicule  and  even  cruelty.  Hea- 
then charity  has  little  respect  for  those 
unable  to  help  themselves;  hence  the 
deformed,  dependent,  foolish  and  blind, 
were  made  the  cruel  sport  of  idlers  or 
left  to  perish.  Age  and  helplessness 
were  frequently  cast  out  from  homes 
which  their  own  hands  had  reared,  and 
abandoned  to  die  by  the  road-side,  un- 
cared  for  and  unpitied  by  neighbor  or 
relative.  The  more  merciful  children 
gave  the  finishing  stroke  at  once,  and 
left  their  corpses  the  prey  of  prowling 
dogs. 

Humanity  to  the  aged  and  afflicted 
could  not  be  expected  from  those  whose 


"  tender  mercies  were  cruelty  "  to  their 
own  offspring.  Multitudes  were  yearly 
destroyed  before  birth,  by  means  which 
will  not  bear  record,  and  which  caused 
permanent  injury  to  the  mother.  As 
many,  perhaps,  were  murdered  weeks, 
months  and  even  years  after  they  saw 
the  light.  Parents  had  authority  of  life 
and  death  over  their  young,  accountable 
to  no  one.  Infanticide  was  more  preva- 
lent among  the  poorer  classes  than  the 
rich.  Whim,  expediency  or  fear  of 
diminishing  their  personal  charms,  to 
them  were  adequate  motives  to  doom 
their  young  to  a  barbarous  death.  The 
poor  destroyed  many  of  their  children  to 
avoid  the  expense  or  trouble  of  rearing 
them.  Other  classes,  from  laziness,  ill 
humor,  or  to  gratify  a  malignant  dispo- 
sition. When  a  quarrel  arose  between 
the  parents,  the  child  was  liable  to  be 
sacrificed.  A  case  happened  on  Ha- 
waii, in  regard  to  a  boy  seven  years  of 
age.  Both  parties  became  frantic  with 
rage  ;  the  father  seized  the  child  by  the 
wrists  with  one  hand,  and  the  legs  in 
the  other,  and  with  one  stroke  broke  its 
back  across  his  knee,  and  threw  the 
mangled  corpse  at  the  feet  of  his  wife. 
The  child  was  his  own;  no  one  could 
have  interfered  to  prevent  or  punish. 
Some  spared  two  or  three,  but  more 
destroyed  all  but  one.  It  was  some- 
times done  by  strangling,  and  often  by 
burying  the  innocent  sufferers  alive ; 
both  parents  uniting  in  trampling  the 
earth  over  the  form  of  their  murdered 
babe,  the  floor  of  their  own  hut  not  un- 
(requently  being  the  grave.  Those  who 
indulged  in  such  a  fiendish  disposition, 
it  is  said,  destroyed,  upon  an  average, 
two  thirds  of  their  children.  For  the 
credit  of  humanity,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
it  was  not  so  prevalent  as  some  recent 
writers  have  supposed ;  or  else  its  in- 
crease was  latterly  great.  Numbers  of 
women  are  to  be  found,  who  confess  to 
the  murder  of  from  three  to  six  and  eight 
children.  Females  being  considered  as 
less  useful  than  males,  were  more  often 
destroyed. 

Cook,  in  his  account  of  Kauai,  praises 
their  parental  affection  and  kindness. 
But  mere  voyagers  are  liable  to  err 
greatly  in  their  estimate  of  a  people 
whom  they  see  but  transiently,  and  with 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


45 


whom  intercourse  is  embarassed  from 
ignorance  of  their  tongue.  More  au- 
thentic records,  and  subsequent  exam- 
inations, have  proved  infanticide,  in  all 
its  horrible  shades,  to  have  been  a  com- 
mon custom.  Not  perhaps  to  such  an 
extent  as,  by  itself,  to  occasion  a  great 
decrease  of  population,  though  joined 
with  other  causes,  it  produced  sad  re- 
sults. Tenderness  to  the  living  was  not 
to  be  increased  by  the  exercise  of  so 
fell  a  passion.  Hawaiian  parents  had  a 
kind  of  animal  affection  for  their  off- 
spring, which,  like  any  instinct,  not  gov- 
erned by  reason,  was  as  often  injurious 
as  beneficial.  The  ill  effects  of  this  were 
apparent  in  their  education.  There  was 
no  regular  family  discipline  ;  a  caress  or 
blow  being  the  only  reward  or  punish- 
ment. It  was  a  common  practice  to 
give  away  children,  towards  whom  a 
community  of  feeling,  the  result  of  the 
very  promiscuous  intercourse  of  the 
sexes,  must  necessarily  have  existed. 
Children  could  seldom  determine  their 
real  parents.  Dogs  and  swine  wrere 
quite  as  frequently  objects  of  fondness, 
and  often  allowed  more  indulgences  and 
better  food  than  fell  to  the  lot  of  their 
biped  companions;  their  mothers'  breasts 
giving  suck  to  the  brute  in  preference 
to  the  immortal  being. 

The  cleanliness  of  the  islanders  has 
been  much  praised,  but  equally  without 
reason.  Frequent  bathing  kept  their 
persons  in  tolerable  order,  but  the  same 
filthy  clothing  was  worn  while  it  would 
hold  together.  The  lodgings  of  the 
common  orders  were  shared  with  the 
brutes,  and  their  bodies  a  common  re- 
ceptacle of  vermin.  All,  of  every  age 
and  sex,  herded  in  common ;  the  same 
mat  beneath  them  at  night,  and  the  same 
tapa  above.  If  a  fly  perchance  alighted 
on  their  food,  their  delicate  stomachs 
became  sick ;  but  the  same  sensitive 
organ  found  delicious  morsels  in  the 
raw,  uncleaned  entrails  of  animals  or 
fish ;  and  the  choicest  of  all,  in  vermin 
picked  from  each  others  hair. 

Oppressive  as  were  the  laws  to  the 
men,  they  were  far  more  so  upon  the 
women.  Their  sex  was  but  an  addi- 
tional motive  for  insult  and  tyranny. 
The  right  of  blood  gave  to  the  highest 
female  the  power  to  rule ;  but  she, 


equally  with  the  humblest  dependent, 
was  subject  to  the  iron  law  of  the  "  ta- 
boos." Neither  could  eat  with  men ; 
their  houses  and  their  labors  were  dis- 
tinct ;  their  aliment  was  separately  pre- 
pared. A  female  child  from  birth  to 
death  was  allowed  no  food  that  had 
touched  its  father's  dish.  The  choicest 
of  animal  and  vegetable  products  were 
reserved  for  the  male  child ;  for  the  fe- 
male the  poorest ;  while  the  use  of  many 
kinds,  such  as  pork,  turtle,  shark,  ba- 
nanas and  cocoanut,  were  altogether  in- 
terdicted. Woman  was  made  bitterly 
to  feel  her  sexual  degradation.  She 
was  excused  from  no  labors,  excepting 
such  as  were  altogether  too  arduous  for 
her  weaker  frame.  Thus  her  lot  became 
even  worse  than  that  of  her  sex  gener- 
ally in  the  southern  groups. 

In  the  preceding  pages  it  has  been 
my  endeavor  to  draw  a  just  outline  of 
the  native  government,  religion,  man- 
ners and  customs,  as  they  existed  prior 
to  the  discovery  of  Cook.  In  some 
points,  but  little  change  has  been  expe- 
rienced to  the  present  day,  while  in 
others  the  alteration  has  been  total.  To 
trace  the  history  of  the  progress  from 
its  primary  causes ;  the  influences  of 
commerce,  and  of  civilized  man  in  the 
gradual  development  of  civilization  and 
Christianity  among  this  benighted  race  ; 
and  to  present,  in  a  forcible  light,  the 
contrast  between  the  past  and  present, 
will  be  the  attempt  of  future  chapters. 
Modern  history  affords  no  more  interest- 
ing picture  than  this  peaceful  and  tri- 
umphant revolution.  Its  action  has  been 
but  partially  understood  and  represent- 
ed. Civilization  and  Christianity  have 
each  their  interested  advocates,  who 
endeavor  to  build  up  their  favorite  sys- 
tems at  mutual  expense.  Their  influ- 
ence has  been  generally  presented  as 
that  of  rival  institutions;  the  destruction 
of  one  to  be  the  erection  of  the  other. 
Both  views  are  equally  apart  from  truth. 
The  Hawaiian  character  in  its  gen- 
eral caste,  uninfluenced  by  either  of  the 
above  causes,  may  be  thus  summed  up. 
From  childhood  no  pure  social  affections 
were  inculcated.  Existence  was  due 
rather  to  accident  than  design.  If 
spared  by  a  parent's  hand,  a  boy  lived 
to  become  the  victim  of  a  priest,  an  of- 


46 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


fering  to  a  blood-loving  deity,  or  to  ex- 
perience a  living  death  from  preter- 
natural fears  : — a  slave,  not  only  to  his 
own  superstitions,  but  to  the  terrors  and 
caprices  of  his  chief.  He  was  not  to 
know  freedom  either  in  life  or  property, 
but  in  its  stead  a  pitiless  tyranny,  reap- 
ing where  it  had  not  sown.  To  him  ex- 
isted no  social  circle  to  purify  by  kindly 
affections ;  no  moral  teachings  enkindled 
a  love  of  truth,  no  revelation  cheered 
his  earthly  course,  or  brightened  future 
hopes.  Theft,  lying,  drunkenness,  rev- 
eling, treachery,  revenge,  lewdness,  in- 
fanticide and  murder,  were  familiar  to 
his  youth,  and  too  often  became  the  prac- 
tices of  his  manhood.  Guilt  was  meas- 
ured by  success  or  failure.  Justice  was 
but  retaliation,  and  the  law  itself  array- 
ed each  man's  hand  against  his  brother. 
Games  and  amusements  were  but  means 
of  gambling  and  sensual  excitement. 
An  individual  selfishness  which  sought 
present  gratification,  momentary  pleas- 
ure, or  lasting  results,  regardless  of  un- 
holy measures  or  instruments,  was  the 
all-predominating  passion.  The  most 
attractive  quality  of  the  Hawaiian,  it 
cannot  be  called  a  virtue,  was  a  kind  of 
easy,  listless,  good  nature,  never  to  be 
depended  upon  when  their  interests  or 
passions  were  aroused.  Instances  of  a 
better  disposition  were  sometimes  dis- 
played, and  occasional  gleams  of  hu- 
manity, among  which  may  be  mentioned 
friendship,  and  a  hospitality  common  to 
all  rude  nations,  where  the  distinctions 
of  property  are  but  slightly  understood, 
enlivened  their  dark  characters ;  but 
these  were  sufficient  only  to  redeem 
their  title  to  humanity,  and  not  make  us 
altogether  "  blush  and  hide  our  heads," 
to  own  ourselves  fellow-men.  Individu- 
als there  were  who  rose  above  this  level 
of  degradation  ;  but  their  lives  served  to 
render  more  prominent  the  vices  of  the 
remainder.  La  Perouse,  though  fresh 
from  the  Rousseau  school  of  innocence 
of  savage  life,  thus,  perhaps,  a  little  too 
broadly,  expressed  his  opinion  :  "  The 
most  daring  rascals  of  Europe  are  less 
hypocritical  than  these  natives.  All 
their  caresses  were  false.  Their  physi- 
ognomy does  not  express  a  single  sen- 
timent of  truth.  The  object  most  to  be 
suspected  is  he  who  has  just  received  a 


present,  or  who  appears  to  be  the  most 
earnest  in  rendering  a  thousand  little 
services."— Vol.  1,  p.  377. 

These  islanders  possessed  a  callous- 
ness to  pain,  wonderful  to  the  more  deli- 
cately reared  white  man.  A  like  in- 
sensibility pervaded  their  moral  system. 
Those  who  live  in  dangerous  climates, 
or  among  alarming  natural  phenomena, 
manifest  a  surprising  indifference  to  the 
surrounding  dangers,  and  engage  in  the 
pleasures  of  life  with  more  than  ordinary 
zest.  The  native,  thoughtless  of  the 
morrow,  careless  of  results,  and  habitu- 
ated to  scenes  of  death,  enjoyed  his 
animal  pleasures  with  a  heartiness  which 
vigorous  health  alone  could  give.  By 
this  many  were  deceived  into  the  opin- 
ion that  they  were  a  happy,  cheerful  and 
simple  race. 

Their  joys  and  griefs  were  equally 
ephemeral ;  tears  of  sorrow  could  follow 
in  quick  succession  peals  of  laughter, 
and  both  give  way  to  an  almost  immov- 
able apathy.  Such  happiness  as  a 
moral  degradation  which  the  world  else- 
where might  equal  but  not  excel,  was 
indeed  theirs.  So  dark  were  their  con- 
ceptions of  one  of  the  most  pleasurable 
emotions  of  the  heart,  gratitude,  that 
there  was  found  in  their  language  no 
word  to  express  the  sentiment.  As  far 
as  a  language  affords  an  index  of  the 
heart  of  a  nation,  theirs  presented  a 
most  deplorable  picture.  Prolific  in 
epithets  expressive  of  every  degree  and 
shade  of  vice  and  crime,  copious  in 
illustrations  of  the  actions  of  the  mere 
animal  man,  it  was  barren  of  words  to 
convey  correct  ideas  of  virtue  and  rec- 
titude. Their  language,  according  to 
Dibble,  could  not  even  "  describe  a  man 
of  common  faithfulness  and  honesty,  and 
was  incapable  of  expressing,  without 
much  ambiguity  and  confusion,  the  com- 
mon notions  of  right  and  wrong."  In 
losing  all  just  conceptions  of  Deity,  they 
had  equally  lost  the  power  of  expressing 
the  attributes  of  love  and  goodness.  So 
completely  had  the  flood  of  iniquity 
which  deluged  the  land  swept  away  the, 
vocabulary  of  moral  sentiments,  in  their- 
simple  abstract  forms,  that  not  an  un~; 
corrupted  remnant  remained.  Either 
oblivion  had  buried  them,  or  corruption 
had  so  changed  their  nature  as  to  leave 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLAXDS. 


47 


no  trace  of  their  original  brightness  be- 
hind. The  missionaries  were  put  to 
great  straits  in  making  the  truths  of  the 
gospel  at  all  intelligible,  and  with  all 
their  labor,  for  some  time  the  grossest 
notions  prevailed.  Besides  creating 
terms  expressive  of  the  meaning  of  the 
gospel,  they  were  obliged  to  create  cor- 
responding ideas,  in  Hawaiian  minds, 
before  their  meaning  could  be  rightly 
comprehended  ;  and  even  now,  no  small 
obstacle  is  presented  to  their  success  in 
imparting  just  conceptions  of  the  reveal- 
ed will  of  God,  by  the  operation  of  the 
remains  of  that  moral  ignorance  which 
the  natives  themselves  very  expressively 
designate  as  "  dark-heartedness." 


CHAPTER  V. 

Visits  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands  previous  to  Cook — 
Anson's  chart — Spaniards  acquainted  with  Hawaii 
—Traditions  of  a  priest— Landing  of  Europeans  be- 
tween 1535  and  1560— Shipwreck  at  Kealakeakua 
Bay — Ships  seen — First  appearance  of  Cook — His 
reception  —  Astonishment  of  islanders  —  Effects  of 
visit — War  on  Maui — Cook's  re-appearance — First 
notice  of  Kamehameha— Cook's  arrival  at  Kealake- 
akua Bay — His  deification — Remarks — Native  hos- 
pitality— Thefts — Cook's  desecration  of  the  temple 
— Growing  dislike  of  natives — Ships  sail — Return — 
Succeeding  events — Cook's  death — Ledyard's  account 
— Native  do. — Review  of  proceedings — Recovery  of 
bones— Peace — Departure  of  ships — Touch  at  Oahu 
— Arrive  at  Kauai — Wars — Attacked  by  natives — 
Visit  Niihau— Final  departure. 

THERE  are  substantial  reasons  for 
believing  that  the  Hawaiian  Islands 
were  visited  by  Europeans  two  centuries 
or  more  before  the  era  of  Cook.  Among 
the  natives  the  knowledge  of  such  events 
has  been  perpetuated  in  numerous  tra- 
ditions, which  coincide  with  so  much 
collateral  evidence  as  to  place  it  beyond 
doubt.  It  is  impossible  to  ascertain  the 
precise  time  of  these  visits,  though  from 
the  reigns  to  which  they  are  referred, 
and  the  few  particulars  which  have  been 
preserved  relative  to  them,  they  must 
have  been  long  anterior  to  that  of  the 
English  navigator.  If  their  original  dis- 
coverers were  the  Spaniards,  as  is  high- 
ly probable,  they  were  acquainted  with 
their  position  previous  to  the  seven- 
teenth century.  According  to  an  old 
authority,  Quiros  sighted  them  in  1696, 
in  a  voyage  from  Manila  to  New  Spain. 
In  a  chart  of  that  period,  taken  by  Ad- 
miral Anson  from  a  Spanish  galleon,  a 
cluster  of  islands  called  La  Mesa,  Los 


Majos,  La  Desgraciada,  is  found  de- 
lineated, in  the  same  latitude  as  the 
Hawaiian  Islands,  and  bearing  the  same 
relative  situation  to  Boca  Partida  as  on 
modern  charts,  though  several  hundred 
miles  farther  eastward.  As  the  Spanish 
charts  of  that  time  were  not  remarkable 
for  accuracy,  the  discoveries  of  Quiros, 
Mendana  and  others,  in  the  Pacific, 
being  also  placed  in  the  same  relative 
nearness  to  the  coast  of  America,  this 
may  have  been  an  error,  either  of  calcu- 
lation, the  engravers,  or  of  design. 
Lying  directly  in  the  course  of  their 
rich  Manila  galleons,  they  would  have 
afforded  a  secure  retreat  for  the  bucca- 
neers and  their  numerous  naval  ene- 
mies ;  consequently  it  would  have  been 
a  matter  of  policy  to  have  confined  the 
knowledge  of  their  situation  to  their  own 
commanders  navigating  these  seas.  As 
their  number  was  small,  rarely  more 
than  one  ship  annually  following  that 
track,  it  is  no  matter  of  surprise  that 
they  should  have  become  forgotten,  or 
perhaps  the  memory  of  them  revived 
only  at  intervals,  by  their  being  seen  at 
a  distance.  Their  first  visitors  must 
have  discovered  that  there  were  no 
mineral  treasures  to  reward  a  conquest ; 
and  little  else  in  those  days  sufficed  to 
tempt  the  Spanish  hidalgo  to  new  scenes 
of  adventure  and  hardship.  The  name 
of  one,  Mesa,  which  means  table,  agrees 
very  well  with  the  flat  appearance  of 
Mauna  Loa  on  Hawaii,  seen  at  a  great 
distance.  Captain  King,  in  approach- 
ing it,  called  it  "  table-land."  The  fact 
that  no  other  group  of  islands  exists  in 
their  vicinity  strengthens  the  supposition 
in  regard  to  the  identity  of  the  cluster 
upon  the  Spanish  chart,  with  the  mod- 
ern Hawaiian  Islands. 

We  must  look  for  further  proof  from 
the  aborigines  themselves.  Cook  found 
in  the  possession  of  the  natives  of  Kauai 
two  pieces  of  iron ;  one  a  portion  of  a 
hoop,  and  the  other  appeared  to  be  part 
of  the  blade  of  a  broadsword.  The 
knowledge  and  use  of  iron  was  generally 
known.  These  relics  may  have  been 
the  fruit  of  the  voyages  of  the  natives 
themselves,  to  some  of  the  islands  more 
to  the  westward,  which  had  been  visited 
by  Eutopeans,  or  they  may  have  drifted 
ashore  attached  to  some  portion  of  a 


48 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


wreck.  But  it  is  more  probable  that 
they  were  left  by  foreigners  themselves, 
a  supposition  which  coincides  with  tradi- 
tions. The  long  time  which  had  elapsed 
since  their  first  arrival  and  the  small 
store  of  property  brought  with  them, 
would  naturally  account  for  so  little  hav- 
ing survived  the  multifarious  purposes, 
to  which,  from  its  great  utility,  it  was 
applied.  The  value  attached  to  these 
foreign  articles  must  have  led  to  fre- 
quent contests  for  their  possession,  which 
would  greatly  add  to  their  chances  of 
being  lost. 

Tradition  states  that  ships  were  seen, 
many  generations  back,  to  pass  the 
islands  at  a  distance.  They  were  call- 
ed moku,  "  islands,"  a  name  which  ves- 
sels of  every  description  have  since  re- 
tained. 

We  have  several  accounts  of  the  ar- 
rival of  different  parties  of  foreigners. 
In  the  reign  of  Kahoukapu  a  kahuna, 
"  priest,"  arrived  at  Kohala,  the  north- 
west point  of  Hawaii.  He  was  a  white 
man,  and  brought  with  him  a  large  and 
a  small  idol,  which  by  his  teachings  and 
persuasions,  were  enrolled  in  the  Ha- 
waiian calendar  of  gods  and  a  temple 
erected  for  them.  Paao,  such  was  his 
name,  soon  acquired  power  and  influ- 
ence, which  he  exercised  in  the  cause  of 
humanity,  by  inducing  the  king  to  spare 
the  life  of  one  of  his  sons  who  had  been 
ordered  to  execution. 

Kahoukapu  reigned  eighteen  genera- 
tions of  kings  previous  to  Kamehameha 
I.  As  few  died  natural  deaths,  their 
reigns  were  short,  probably  not  aver- 
aging above  ten  to  fifteen  years  each. 
If  such  were  the  case,  it  would  bring 
the  arrival  of  Paao  to  somewhere  be- 
tween the  years  1530  and  1600,  a  period 
brilliant  in  the  annals  of  Spanish  mari- 
time discovery  in  the  Pacific.*  From 


*  Diego  de  Becerra,  and  Hernando  de  Grijalva,  sailed 
from  Mexico  in  1533,  and  discovered  an  island  in  the 
South  Seai*;  situated  in  20  o  30'  north  latitude,  and 
about  100-  west  longitude  from  Paris,  which  they 
called  St.  Thomas  Island.  The  latter  discovered  the 
isiauds  now  called  the  Revillagigedos. 

Juan  Goetan,  in  1542,  discovered  between  the  ninth 
and  twentieth  degrees  of  north  latitude,  and  in  vari- 
ous longitiides,  several  clusters  of  islands,  which  he 
named  the  Coral,  Garden  and  Sailor  Islands.  It  is  not 
improbable  that  the  Hawaiian  Islands  were  visited 
during  this  period.  The  latitude  in  both  instances 
agrees  with  their  situation ;  but  the  attempt  to  iden- 
tity them  with  certainty  must  prove  futile,  from  the 
jneagreness  of  the  journals,  and  the  great  inaccuracies 
in  longitudinal  observations.  It  was  a  matter  of  pol- 
icy with  the  Court  at  Madrid,  at  the  end  of  the  16th  I 


1568  to  1595,  Mendana  crossed  the 
ocean  twice,  and  fell  in  with  several 
groups.  Quiros,  a  few  years  afterward, 
discovered  Tahiti,  New  Hebrides  and 
many  other  islands.  It  is  not  an  unrea- 
sonable conjecture  to  suppose  that  some 
zealous  friar,  at  his  own  request,  was 
left  upon  Hawaii,  in  the  hope  of  convert- 
ing the  natives  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
faith,  or  he  may  have  been  the  sole  sur- 
vivor of  a  shipwreck.  The  idols  were 
possibly  an  image  and  crucifix,  though 
no  traces  of  the  latter  have  been  dis- 
covered. 

Opili,  the  son  of  Paao,  succeeded  him 
in  his  religious  offices.  During  his  life 
a  party  of  white  men  are  said  to  have 
landed  on  the  southwest  part  of  the 
island,  and  gone  inland,  and  taken  up 
their  abode  in  the  mountains.  The  na- 
tives viewed  them  with  mysterious  dread, 
doubtful  whether  they  were  of  divine  or 
merely  human  origin.  Opili  was  sent 
for,  and  his  advice  asked  as  to  the  man- 
ner of  opening  an  intercourse  and  pro- 
pitiating them.  By  his  directions  great 
quantities  of  provisions  were  prepared 
and  sent  them,  in  solemn  procession. 
Opili,  with  several  others  of  distinction, 
walked  at  the  head  of  the  party,  bear- 
ing white  flags,  symbolical  of  their 
peaceful  intentions.  The  strangers  see- 
ing this,  ventured  from  their  retreat. 
The  baked  pigs  and  potatoes  and  other 
dainties  were  deposited  on  the  ground, 
and  the  carriers  retreated  a  short  dis- 
tance. When  the  foreigners  approach- 
ed, Opili  spoke  to  them.  The  presents 
were  gladly  received,  and  a  conversa- 


century,  to  suppress  journals  of  discoveries,  or  so  dis- 
courage explorations  that  private  adventurers  rarely 
were  able  to  enter  upon  them. 

"  The  Manila  ships  are  the  only  ones  which  have 
traversed  this  vast  ocean,  except  a  French  straggler 
or  two ;  and  during  near  two  ages  in  which  this  trade 
has  been  carried  on,  the  Spaniards  have  with  the  great- 
est care  secreted  all  accounts  of  their  voyages." — In- 
troduction to  Anson's  Voyages,  page  15 :  London,  1748. 

La  Perouse  is  of  opinion  that  the  Coral  Islands  of 
Gtetan  were  the  Sandwich  Islands.  Gtetan  describe* 
them  as  affording  neither  gold  nor  silver,  but  abound- 
ing in  cocoanut  trees,  inhabited  by  a  race  of  naked 
savages,  and  surrounded  with  coral  reefs.  This  is  a 
plausible  conjecture,  as  he  took  his  departure  from  the 
port  of  Nativity,  Mexico,  in  20  °  north  latitude,  and 
sailed  due  west,  900  leagues,  which  would  bring  him 
directly  to  the  present  Hawaiian  Islands.  The  lati- 
tude of  the  Garden  Islands  is  given  as  between  nine 
and  eleven  degrees  north.  As  there  are  no  islands  in 
that  position  to  correspond  with  the  description,  and 
in  sailing  due  west  he  would  not  be  likely  to  have 
fallen  six  hundred  miles  to  the  south,  it  is  highly  prob- 
able that  the  latitude  ascribed  was  a  typographical,  if 
not  an  intentional  error.  Change  the  degrees  to  the 
19th  and  21st,  and  the  true  latitude  is  found,  while  the 
distance  west  gives  the  correct  longitude. 


HISTORY   OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


tion,  the  particulars  of  which  unfortu- 
nately were  not  preserved,  kept  up  for 
some  time.  It  seems  that  Opili  con- 
versed freely  with  them,  which  was  sup- 
posed by  the  natives  to  have  been  owing 
to  a  miraculous  gift  of  language,  but  he 
probably  had  acquired  from  his  father 
some  knowledge  of  his  tongue.  The 
strangers  were  ever  after  regarded  as 
gods,  and  treated  with  the  utmost  re- 
spect, though  they  did  not  remain  on 
the  island.  Tradition  states  not  how 
they  embarked.  The  principal  person- 
age was  called  malihini ;  this  term  is 
still  common  to  the  Marquesan,  Society 
and  Hawaiian  Islands,  and  is  used  to 
designate  a  stranger,  guest  or  visitor. 

Another,  and  more  precise  tradition, 
relates  that  a  few  years  after  the  de- 
parture of  the  former  party,  another  ar- 
rived at  Kealakeakua  Bay,  on  the  west 
side  of  Hawaii.  Their  boat  had  no 
masts  or  sails,  but  was  painted,  and  an 
awning  was  spread  over  the  stern.  They 
were  all  clad  in  white  and  yellow  cloth, 
and  one  wore  a  plumed  hat.  At  his  side 
hung  a  long  knife,  " palii?  which  term 
is  still  applied  to  a  sword. 

This  party  remained,  and  formed  ami- 
cable alliances  with  the  natives,  and  by 
their  superior  skill  and  knowledge,  soon 
rose  to  be  chiefs  and  famed  warriors, 
and  for  a  considerable  period  governed 
Hawaii. 

In  the  reign  of  Kealiiokaloa,  son  of 
Umi,  thirteen  generations  of  kings  be- 
fore Cook's  arrival,  which,  according  to 
the  previous  calculation,  would  bring  it 
near  the  year  1620,  a  vessel,  called  by 
the  natives  Konaliloha,  arrived  at  Pale 
Keei,  on  the  south  side  of  Kealakeakua 
Bay,  Hawaii.  Here,  by  some  accident, 
she  was  drawn  into  the  surf  and  totally 
wrecked.  The  captain,  Kukanaloa,  and 
a  white  woman,  said  to  be  his  sister, 
were  the  only  persons  who  were  saved. 
Upon  reaching  the  beach,  either  from 
fear  of  the  inhabitants,  to  return  thanks 
for  their  safety,  or  perhaps  from  sorrow, 
they  prostrated  themselves,  and  remain- 
ed a  long  time  in  that  position.  Where 
this  took  place  is  known  at  the  present 
day  by  the  appellation  of  Kuloif,  bow- 
ing down.  The  shipwrecked  strangers 
were  hospitably  received,  invited  to  the 
dwellings  of  the  natives,  and  food  placed  I 
7 


49 


before  them.  As  runs  the  tradition,  the 
following  question  was  asked,  "  have 
you  ever  seen  this  kind  of  food  ?  "  To 
which  they  replied,  "  we  have  it  grow- 
ing in  our  country."  By  what  means 
they  thus  freely  conversed,  it  is  not 
known,  though  the  Opili  before  men- 
tioned may  have  again  acted  as  inter- 
preter. Bananas,  breadfruit  and  ohias, 
"  wild  apples,"  were  given  them,  which 
they  ate  with  much  satisfaction.  They 
formed  connections  with  the  native  Ha- 
waiians,  and  gave  birth  to  a  mixed  race, 
from  which  a  number  of  chiefs  and  com- 
mon people  are  said  to  have  descended. 
Kaikioewa,  the  late  governor  of  Kauai, 
was  reputed  to  have  been  one  of  their 
descendants.  It  would  now  be  a  matter 
of  much  interest  to  know  the  actual  fate 
of  this,  the  first  white  woman  who  land- 
ed on  these  shores ;  but  more  than  the 
above  will  probably  never  be  known. 

Another  statement  speaks  of  two  ves- 
sels wrecked  on  the  northeast  coast  of 
Hawaii,  and  that  none  of  the  crews  were 
saved,  being  either  lost  in  the  surf  or 
murdered  as  soon  as  they  landed.* 

There  is  a  tradition  extant  of  a  ship 
that  touched  at  Maui  about  this  period, 
and  it  is  possible  upon  further  examina- 
tion, the  same  or  others  were  seen  at 
the  leeward  islands,  as  one  could  not  be 
\isited  without  a  knowledge  being  ob- 
tained of  their  neighbors.  In  clear 
weather,  from  certain  points,  several 
islands  were  within  the  range  of  the  eye. 

Though  these  traditions  are  somewhat 
inconsistent  in  a  few  particulars,  they 
are  quite  as  explicit  as  those  that  re- 
late to  their  national  history.  The  last 
of  these  visits  can  be  referred  to  a  period 
nearly  a  century  and  a  half  prior  to 
Cook's  arrival;  a  time  quite  sufficient 
to  have  dimmed  the  recollection  of  events 
and  thrown  a  mystery  over  the  whole. 
Enough  has  been  preserved  to  establish 
the  fact  that  centuries  since,  vessels 
visited  these  islands,  and  parties  of  white 
men  landed  on  them  and  left  progeny, 
whose  descendants  are  distinguished 


*  Kotzebue,  in  his  last  "  Voyage  around  the  "World," 
alludes  to  two  anchors  which  were  said  to  have  been 
fonnd  at  Hawa%  and  were  presumed  to  have  belonged 
to  one  of  those  vessels.  No  other  author  mentions  the 
circumstance,  nor  hare  I  been  able  to  ga'her  any  light 
upon  the  subject  from  the  native  accounts,  though  it 
is  not  at  all  improbable  that  such  did  exist,  and  have 
since  been  buried  in  the  sand,  or  overgrown  in  the 
coral  reef. 


50 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


even  to  this  day,  by  their  lighter  skin, 
and  brown  or  red  curly  hair,  called  ehu. 
A  party  of  white  men  called  Jfea,  are 
said  to  have  roamed  wild  in  the  moun- 
tains, occasionally  making  inroads  upon 
the  more  fertile  districts,  much  to  the 
terror  of  the  inhabitants,  particularly 
the  females. 

The  graceful  form  of  the  helmets  and 
the  elegance  of  the  feathered  mantles, 
so  unlike  the  usual  rude  arts  of  the 
islanders,  bearing  as  they  did  a  striking 
resemblance,  in  form,  to  those  formerly 
worn  among  the  Spaniards,  would  seem 
to  have  derived  their  origin  from  visitors 
of  that  nation.  If  they  were  not  orig- 
inally the  result  of  European  taste,  they 
formed  a  singular  deviation  from  the 
general  costume  of  Polynesia.  The  skill 
displayed  in  their  martial  rnanceuvres, 
their  phalanxes  of  bristling  spears,  their 
well  drawn  up  lines  of  battle,  all  savor 
of  foreign  improvement,  and  may  be 
ascribed  to  hints  received  from  those, 
who,  like  waifs,  were  cast  upon  their 
shores,  and  to  which  they  were  the  fore- 
runners of  a  civilization  destined  event- 
ually to  spread  over  the  whole  group. 
How  far  their  influence  may  have  ex- 
tended in  improving  other  arts,  it  is  im- 
possible to  ascertain  ;  but  some,  partic- 
ularly the  good  taste  and  pretty  pat- 
terns found  among  their  cloths,  the  fine 
polish  of  their  wooden  bowls,  appear  to 
have  owed  their  perfection  to  a  similar 
cause.  That  a  few  rude  sailors  or  ad- 
venturers should  not  have  been  able  to 
have  revolutionized  their  system  of  re- 
ligion, even  if  inclined,  is  not  strange  ; 
though  doubtless  their  influence,  com- 
pared with  the  bloody  superstitions 
among  which  they  were  thus  cast,  was 
in  some  degree  humanizing.  In  Paao, 
the  priest,  we  perceive  this  principle 
forcibly  illustrated  in  preventing  the 
death  of  a  doomed  man.  This  individual 
having  been  the  son  of  a  king,  may 
have  been  the  reason  of  its  being  record- 
ed in  their  traditions,  while  less  con- 
spicuous cases  of  merciful  interference 
were  forgotten  in  the  long  catalogue  of 
succeeding  cruelties  and  crimes.* 


*  A  number  of  Hawaiian  words  are  somewhat  anal- 
ogous to  the  Spanish,  and  may  have  been  derived  from 
them,  though  it  is  only  the  fact  of  their  former  inter- 
course that  throws  any  probability  upon  this  conjec- 
ture. Pono,  good,  fair  or  just,  could  without  much 


I  have  already  alluded  to  the  striking 
analogies  between  many  of  their  reli- 
gious customs  and  traditions  and  those 
of  early  Jewish  rites  and  scriptures.  It 
is  impossible  to  say  that  even  these 
were  not  derived  from  these  strangers 
in  their  attempt  to  impress  upon  them  a 
purer  ritual  and  better  faith.  But  the 
fact  that  we  find  in  their  traditions  no 
traces  of  ideas  of  a  triune  deity,  of  an 
earth-born  Saviour  and  of  the  Virgin 
Mary  and  other  prominent  points  more 
likely  to  have  been  preached  to  savages 
by  Roman  Catholics  than  an  observance 
of  the  ceremonies  of  Judaism,  leads 
either  to  the  conclusion  that  if  once 
heard  they  have  since  been  wholly  for- 
gotten, or  we  must  refer  those  customs 
and  traditions  to  a  period  which  it  would 
be  vain  even  to  hope  to  penetrate  with 
the  probability  of  arriving  at  any  solution 
of  so  interesting  an  historical  inquiry. 

To  whatever  extent  these  islands  may 
have  been  known  to  the  Spanish  navi- 
gators or  stragglers  across  the  vast  Pa- 
cific, from  the  earlier  part  of  the  six- 
teenth to  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  who  from  ignorance  or  design, 
left  the  world  unacquainted  with  their 
importance,  it  does  not  detract  from  the 
credit  due  to  the  energy  and  ability  dis- 
played by  their  English  successor,  Cap- 
tain Cook.  He  was  probably  unaware 
of  their  true  position  ;  and  if  to  Colum- 
bus the  discovery  of  America  is  to  be 
attributed,  equally  to  Cook  is  that  of  the 
Hawaiian  group.  Both  were  simply  re- 
discoveries ;  the  former  owing  rather  to 
the  comprehensive  genius  of  a  mind 
that  dared  to  originate  and  soar  beyond 
his  age  ;  the  latter,  from  actively  pur- 
suing the  track  of  discovery,  and  in- 
fusing into  its  course  renewed  life  and 
vigor.  In  following  other  and  important 
designs,  he  was  brought  in  contact  with 
this  valuable  group.! 


change  have  been  derived  from  the  Spanish  biifno,  or 
the  Portuguese,  bono,  both  of  which  have  the  same 
signification.  Poko,  short,  is  like  the  Spanish  poco, 
little. 

tit  has  been  suggested  that  Cook  had  possession  of 
Anson's  chart,  and  expected,  by  sailing  in  the  course 
he  took,  to  fall  in  with  land.  Tie  actually  inquired  of 
the  natives  of  Tahiti  if  any  islands  lay  to  the  north  of 
them.  In  his  journal  no  great  surprise  is  evinced  at 
discovering  land  in  that  direction,  though  hud  he  been 
a  few  miles  further  to  the  west,  he  would  have  passed 
it  unseen ;  and  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  so  distin- 
guished a  navigator  had  examined  all  charts  and 
voyages  calculated  to  throw  any  light  upon  the  track 
he  was  pursuing.  The  knowledge  that  a  group  of  i-sl- 


BISTORT  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLA3US. 


51 


So  long  a  period  had  elapsed  since 
the  eyes  of  the  natives  had  been  greeted 
with  sights  foreign  to  their  own  islands, 
that  the  memory  of  them  had  become 
obscure,  and  perhaps  with  the  generality 
forgotten.  The  appearance  of  Cook's 
ships,  when  he  first  made  INiihau  and 
Kauai,  on  the  19th  of  January,  1778, 
was  to  their  unsophisticated  senses, 
novel,  fearful  and  interesting.  Canoes 
filled  with  wondering  occupants,  ap- 
proached, but  no  inducement  could  pre- 
vail upon  them  to  go  on  board,  though 
they  were  not  averse  to  barter.  Iron 
was  the  only  article  prized  in  exchange ; 
the  use  of  other  things  was  unknown 
and  even  ornaments  at  first  despised. 

On  the  following  evening,  the  ships 
came  to  anchor  in  Waimea  Bay,  on  the 
south  side  of  Kauai.  As  the  islanders 
were  not  generally  apprised  of  their  ar- 
rival until  morning,  their  surprise  was 
then  extreme.  They  asked  of  one 
another,  "  what  is  this  great  thing  with 
branches  ?  "  Some  replied,  "  it  is  a  for- 
est which  has  moved  into  the  sea." 
This  idea  filled  them  with  consternation. 
Kaneonea  and  Keawe,  the  chief  rulers, 
sent  men  to  examine  the  wonderful  ma- 
chines, who  returned  and  reported  abun- 
dance of  iron,  which  gave  them  much 
joy.  Their  description  of  the  persons 
of  the  seamen  was  after  this  manner : 
u  foreheads  white,  bright  eyes,  rough 
garments,  their  speech  unknown,  and 
their  heads  horned  like  the  moon ; " 
supposing  their  hats  to  be  a  part  of  their 
heads.  Some  conjectured  them  to  be 
women.  The  report  of  the  great  quan- 
tity of  iron  seen  on  board  the  ships  ex- 
cited the  cupidity  of  the  chiefs,  and  one 
of  their  warriors  volunteered  to  seize  it, 
saying,  "  I  will  go  and  take  it,  as  it  is 


ands  did  exist  somewhere  in  the  Xorth  Pacific,  which 
he  successfully  sought  for,  is  more  to  his  credit  than  if 
accident  alone  occasioned  the  discovery;  but  to  ac- 
knowledge no  assistance  from  the  labors  of  others,  and 
to  endeavor  to  appropriate  to  himself  the  sole  honor 
of  the  adventure,  is  unworthy  of  either  him  or  his 
biographers.  A  silence  in  regard  to  the  maritime  ef- 
forts of  his  predecessors,  is  observable  throughout  his 
journals.  In  the  map  of  the  world  attached  to  Ansou's 
Voyages,  published  in  17-18,  the  Sandwich  Islands  are 
delineated  under  their  Spanish  appellations,  correct  as 
to  latitude,  and  but  ten  degrees  too  far  to  the  west. 
Another  island,  St.  Francisco,  is  placed  within  one  de- 
gree of  the  true  position  of  Hawaii,  and  from  il  s  ex- 
tent, corresponds  well  with  that  island.  To  believe 
that  Cook  was  ignorant  of  this  map,  or  had  not  read 
with  attention  so  popular  a  work  as  was  then  Anson's 
Voyages,  is  to  accuse  him  of  unpardonable  negligence 
in  acquiring  knowledge  proper  to  his  profession. 


my  business  to  plunder."  He  went,  and 
in  the  attempt  was  fired  upon  and  killed. 

In  the  account  of  the  commencement 
of  the  intercourse  between  the  two  races, 
I  adhere  principally  to  the  description 
since  given  by  the  native  historians,  of 
the  sensations  and  singular  ideas  pro- 
duced in  the  minds  of  their  ancestors, 
by  the  novel  appearance  of  the  strangers. 
It  is  seldom,  where  the  disparity  of  pow- 
er and  knowledge  is  great,  that  both 
sides  are  heard.  In  this  instance,  the 
knowledge  of  writing,  acquired  before 
that  generation  had  altogether  passed 
away,  served  to  preserve  the  memory 
and  incidents  of  the  strange  events  fresh 
in  the  minds  of  their  children,  and  has 
given  to  the  world  the  opportunity  to 
draw  just  inferences  from  mutual  rela- 
tions. Both  dwell  with  emphasis  upon 
those  circumstances  which  to  each  were 
the  most  surprising ;  though  from  the 
greater  novelty,  the  astonishment  was 
far  more  among  the  natives  than  their 
visitors,  and  they  have  recorded  in  their 
simple  narratives,  many  trifling  circum- 
stances which  were  not  thought  worthy 
of  place  in  the  more  enlightened  ac- 
counts. 

Cook  does  not  mention  the  death  of 
the  warrior-thief,  but  states  that  on  the 
evening  before  the  ships  anchored,  he 
sent  some  boats  ashore  to  select  a  water- 
ing-place. The  party,  upon  landing, 
were  pressed  upon  by  the  natives,  who 
attempted  to  seize  their  arms,  oars  and 
other  articles,  in  consequence  of  which, 
the  commanding  officer  gave  orders  to 
fire,  which  was  done,  and  one  man  killed. 
This  produced  no  hostility  from  the  na- 
tives, as  it  accorded  with  their  own 
ideas  of  justifiable  retaliation. 

Throughout  all  the  intercourse,  though 
the  natives  manifested  the  greatest  re- 
spect and  kindness  toward  their  visitors, 
and  both  parties  indulged  in  a  lucrative 
trade,  yet  their  propensity  for  thieving 
was  continually  manifested.  Perfectly 
ready  to  yield  their  own  property  or  per- 
sons to  the  gratification  of  the  whites,  it 
was  but  natural  that,  without  any  sense 
of  shame  or  wrong,  they  should  desire 
the  same  liberties.  Theft  or  lying  were 
to  them  no  crimes.  Success  in  eithei 
was  a  virtue/  and  it  was  not  until  sev- 
eral severe  lessons  in  regard  to  the 


52 


IlISTOET  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


enormity  of  the  former  had  been  re- 
ceived, that  their  discretion  got  the 
better  of  temptation. 

During  the  visit,  which  lasted  but  a 
few  days,  the  commander  manifested  a 
laudable  humanity,  in  endeavoring  to 
shield  the  population  from  the  evil  ef- 
fects which  so  inevitably  result  from 
connection  between  foreign  seamen  and 
the  native  females.  But  his  efforts  were 
vain.  If  the  discipline  of  his  own  crew 
could  have  been  strictly  enforced,  the 
eagerness  of  the  women  was  not  to  be 
repressed.  The  native  history  thus  ac- 
counts for  its  commencement,  by  which 
it  will  be  seen  that  however  praiseworthy 
the  desires  of  the  commanders  of  these 
expeditions  may  have  been,  the  licen- 
tious habits  of  the  natives  themselves 
were  sure  to  counteract  them. 

The  night  after  the  attempt  of  Kapu- 
pua,  the  warrior-thief,  many  guns  were 
discharged.  The  noise  and  fire  were 
imagined  to  proceed  from  the  god  Lono, 
or  Cook,  and  they  at  first  thought  of 
fighting  him.  But  this  design  was  frus- 
trated by  the  advice  of  a  female  chief, 
who  counselled  them  "  not  to  fight  the 
god,  but  gratify  him,  that  he  might  be 
propitious."  Accordingly  she  sent  her 
own  daughter,  with  other  women,  on 
board,  who  returned  with  the  seeds  of 
that  disease,  which  so  soon  and  so  fa- 
tally spread  itself  throughout  the  group. 

On  February  2d,  the  ships  sailed 
from  Niihau,  where  they  had  spent  the 
greater  portion  of  their  stay,  for  the 
Northwest  Coast  of  America.  During 
this  time  they  became  acquainted  with 
the  existence  of  Oahu,  having  seen  it  at 
a  distance,  but  received  no  information 
of  the  more  windward  islands. 

This  visit  was  auspicious  of  the  great 
revolution  which  the  islands  were  des- 
tined to  undergo.  It  had  commenced 
on  the  one  side  with  theft  and  prostitu- 
tion, which  had  been  repaid  by  death 
and  disease.  Still  the  superior  knowl- 
edge, humanity  and  forbearance  of  the 
whites  had  been  seen  and  acknowledged, 
and  their  first  moral  lessons  in  the  dis- 
tinctions of  property,  the  foundation  of 
all  commercial  prosperity,  received. 

The  wonderful  news  spread  rapidly. 
It  soon  reached  Oahu,  whence  one  Moho, 
a  Hawaiian,  carried  the  particulars  to  Ka- 


laniopuu,  king  of  Hawaii.  The  strange 
spectacle  of  the  vessels,  with  their  sails, 
spars  and  flags,  were  minutely  described. 
"The  men,"  he  said,  "had  loose  skins — 
their  clothes — angular  heads,  and  they 
were  gods  indeed.  Volcanoes  belching 
fire,  burned  at  their  mouths — tobacco 
pipes — and  there  were  doors  in  their 
sides  for  property, — doors  which  went 
far  into  their  bodies — pockets — into 
which  they  thrust  their  hands,  and  drew 
out  knives,  iron,  beads,  cloth,  nails,  and 
everything  else."  In  his  description, 
which  he  gave  second  handed,  he  ap- 
pears to  have  considered  the  ships, 
equally  with  their  crews,  as  animated 
beings,  or  else  to  have  so  blended  the 
two,  as  to  have  forgotten  their  appropri- 
ate distinctions ;  an  error  into  which 
savages  readily  fall,  and  which  accounts 
for  the  great  abundance  of  fables  and 
confused  description  which  usually  per- 
vades their  stories.  He  also  mimicked 
their  speech,  representing  it  as  rough, 
harsh  and  boisterous. 

A  small  piece  of  canvas  had  been 
procured  by  the  chief  of  Kauai,  which 
he  sent  as  a  present  to  the  king  of  Oahu, 
who  gallantly  gave  it  to  his  wife.  She 
wore  it  in  a  public  procession,  in  the 
most  conspicuous  part  of  her  dress, 
where  it  attracted  the  greatest  attention. 

During  the  interval  between  Cook's 
first  and  last  visit,  a  war  had  broken 
out  between  Hawaii  and  Maui,  in  which 
Kalaniopuu — the  Terreoboo  of  Cook, 
and  Teraiobu  of  Ledyard — the  king  of 
Hawaii,  contested  the  sovereignty  of 
the  latter  island  with  Kahekili — Titeree 
— the  reigning  prince.  On  this  occa- 
sion, Kamehameha*  accompanied  him. 
This  is  the  first  notice  we  have  of  this 
celebrated  man,  then  a  mere  youth  ;  but 
at  that  early  age  he  gave  evidence  of 
courage  and  enterprise.  On  the  26th 
of  November,  177S,  a  battle  had  been 


*  The  orthography  of  native  names,  before  the  lan- 
guage was  systematized  by  the  American  missiona- 
ries, was  various  and  perplexing.  Kamehameha  was 
written  many  different  ways.  By  Captain  King, 
Maiha-Maiha;  by  others,  Cameamea,  Tomyhcmyhaw, 
Hameaymea,  Tomooma.  Vancouver  and  Turnbull 
were  the  most  correct :  the  former  wrote  it  Tamaah- 
maah ;  the  latter,  Tamahama.  Kalaimoku,  his  prime 
minister,  Crymakoo.  Kaumualii,  king  of  Kauai,  To- 
moree.  Any  one  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  the 
true  vowel  sounds  will  readily  identify  the  various 
names  in  their  modern  dress,  with  those  given  by  the 
early  voyagers,  which  will  render  it  unnecessary  to 
record  their  multiiarious  spellings. 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  BAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


53 


fought  between  the  contending  parties, 
which  proved  favorable  to  Kalaniopuu. 
The  victors  on  the  eve  of  the  same  day 
returned  to  Wailuku,  on  the  north  side 
of  Maui,  to  refresh  their  forces.  When 
the  morning  dawned,  the  stranger  "  isl- 
ands and  gods,"  of  which  they  had 
heard,  appeared  in  view.  Cook's  vessel 
stood  in  near  the  shore,  and  commenced 
a  traffic,  which  the  natives  entered  into 
freely  and  without  much  surprise,  though 
observing  the  port-holes,  they  remarked 
to  each  other,  "  those  were  the  doors  of 
the  things  of  which  we  have  heard,  that 
make  a  great  noise."  Kalaniopuu  sent 
Cook  off  a  present  of  a  few  hogs,  and 
on  the  30th  went  himself  in  state  to 
make  a  visit.  Kamehameha  accompa- 
nied him,  and  with  a  few  attendants  re- 
mained all  night,  much  to  the  consterna- 
tion of  the  people  on  shore,  who,  as  the 
vessel  stood  to  sea,  thought  he  had  been 
carried  off,  and  bitterly  bewailed  his 
supposed  loss.  The  following  morning 
their  young  chief  was  safely  landed,  and 
Cook,  ignorant  of  the  rank  of  his  visitor, 
sailed  for  Hawaii,  which  had  been  dis- 
covered the  previous  day. 

On  the  2d  of  December,  he  arrived  off 
Kohala,  where  his  ships  created  much 
astonishment  among  the  simple  island- 
ers. "  Gods,  indeed,"  they  exclaimed  ; 
"  they  eat  the  flesh  of  man — mistaking 
the  red  pulp  of  water-melons  for  human 
substance — and  the  fire  burns  at  their 
mouths."  However,  this  opinion  of  their  | 
divine  character  did  not  deter  them  from 
exchanging  swine  and  fruit  for  pieces  of 
iron  hoop.  The  definition  which  civi- 
lized man  applies  to  the  word  God,  and 
the  attributes  ascribed  to  the  Divinity, 
differ  materially  from  those  of  the  sav- 
age. With  him,  any  object  of  fear, 
power  or  knowledge  is  a  god,  though  it 
might  differ  not  materially  from  his  own 
nature.  The  ancients  deified  their  illus- 
trious dead,  and  as  in  the  case  of  Herod, 
applied  the  title,  god,  to  the  living.  In 
neither  case  can  it  be  supposed  to  de- 
note more  than  an  acknowledged  supe- 
riority, or  the  strongest  expression  of 
flattery.  While  the  Hawaiians  bowed 
in  dread  to  powerful  deities,  which  in 
their  hardened  understandings  filled  the 
place  of  the  Christian's  God,  they  wor- 
shiped a  multitude  of  inferior  origin, 


whom  they  ridiculed  or  reverenced,  and 
erected  or  destroyed  their  temples,  as 
inclination  prompted.  Hence  their  will- 
ingness at  Waimea,  to  fight  Cook  or 
their  god  Lono,  as  they  deemed  him ; 
the  readiness  with  which  they  were  di- 
verted from  their  purpose  to  try  more 
winning  means  to  gratify  him,  and  the 
alternate  love,  fear  and  hostility  with 
which  he  was  afterward  regarded. 

Cook  continued  his  course  slowly 
around  the  east  end  of  the  island,  occa- 
sionally trading  with  the  natives,  whose 
propensity  to  thieving  was  overcome 
only  by  exhibiting  the  dreadful  effects 
of  fire-arms.  On  the  17th  of  January, 
1779,  he  came  to  anchor  in  Kealakeakua 
Bay,  in  the  district  of  Kona,  the  reputed 
spot  of  the  landing  of  the  Spanish  ad- 
venturers two  centuries  before.  Kalani- 
opuu was  still  engaged  on  Maui  in  pre- 
serving his  conquest.  At  the  bay  it  was 
a  season  of  taboo,  and  no  canoes  were 
allowed  to  be  afloat ;  but  when  the  ships 
were  seen,  the  restrictions  were  removed, 
as  Lono  was  considered  a  deity,  and  his 
vessels  temples. 

The  inhabitants  went  on  board  in 
great  crowds,  and  among  them  Palea,  a 
high  chief,  whose  favorable  influence 
was  secured  by  a  few  acceptable  pres- 
ents. The  seamen  employed  in  caulk- 
ing the  vessels  were  called  the  clan  of 
Mokualii,  the  god  of  canoe-makers,  and 
those  who  smoked,  for  it  was  the  first 
acquaintance  they  had  with  tobacco, 
were  called  Lono-volcano.  As  at  Kauai, 
the  women  were  the  most  assiduous  vis- 
itors, though  great  numbers  of  both  sexes 
flocked  around  Cook  to  pay  him  divine 
honors.  Among  them  was  a  decrepid 
old  man,  once  a  famed  warrior,  but  now 
a  priest.  He  saluted  Captain  Cook 
with  the  greatest  veneration,  and  threw 
over  his  shoulder  a  piece  of  red  cloth. 
Stepping  back,  he  offered  a  pig,  and  pro- 
nounced a  long  harangue.  Religious  cer- 
emonies similar  to  this  were  frequently 
performed  before  the  commander. 

Great  multitudes  flocked  to  the  bay. 
Ledyard  computes  their  number  at  up- 
wards of  fifteen  thousand,  and  states 
that  three  thousand  canoes  were  counted 
afloat  at  once.  The  punctilious  defer- 
ence paid  Cook  when  he  first  landed, 
was  both  painful  and  ludicrous.  Heralds 


54 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


announced  his  approach  and  opened  the 
way  for  his  progress.  A  vast  throng 
crowded  about  him;  others  more  fear- 
ful, gazed  from  behind  stone  walls,  from 
the  tops  of  trees,  or  peeped  from  their 
houses.  The  moment  he  approached 
they  hid  themselves,  or  covered  their 
faces  with  great  apparent  awe,  while 
those  nearer  prostrated  themselves  on 
the  earth  in  the  deepest  humility.  As 
soon  as  he  passed,  all  unveiled  them- 
selves, rose  and  followed  him.  As  he 
walked  fast,  those  before  were  obliged 
to  bow  down  and  rise  as  quickly  as  pos- 
sible, but  not  always  being  sufficiently 
active,  were  trampled  upon  by  the  ad- 
vancing crowd.  At  length  the  matter 
was  compromised,  and  the  inconvenience 
of  being  walked  over  avoided  by  adopt- 
ing a  sort  of  quadruped  gait,  and  ten 
thousand  half  clad  men,  women  and 
children  were  to  be  seen  chasing  or  flee- 
ing from  Cook,  on  all  fours. 

On  the  day  of  his  arrival,  Cook  was 
conducted  to  the  chief  heiau  and  pre- 
sented in  great  form  to  the  idols.  He 
was  taken  to  the  most  sacred  part,  and 
placed  before  the  principal  figure,  im- 
mediately under  an  altar  of  wood,  on 
which  a  putrid  hog  was  deposited.  This 
was  held  toward  him,  while  the  priest 
repeated  a  long  and  rapidly  enunciated 
address,  after  which  he  was  led  to  the 
top  of  a  partially  decayed  scaffolding. 
Ten  men,  bearing  a  large  hog,  and  bun- 
dles of  red  cloth,  then  entered  the  tem- 
ple and  prostrated  themselves  before 
him.  The  cloth  was  taken  from  them 
by  a  priest,  who  encircled  Cook  with  it 
in  numerous  folds,  and  afterward  offered 
the  hog  to  him  in  sacrifice.  Two  priests, 
alternately  and  in  unison,  chanted  praises 
in  honor  of  Lono  ;  after  which  they  led 
him  to  the  chief  idol,  which,  following 
their  example,  he  kissed. 

Similar  ceremonies  were  repeated  in 
another  portion  of  the  heiau,  where 
Cook,  with  one  arm  supported  by  the 
high  priest,  and  the  other  by  Captain 
King,  was  placed  between  two  wooden 
images  and  anointed  on  his  face,  arms 
and  hands  with  the  chewed  kernel  of  a 
cocoanut,  wrapped  in  a  cloth.  These 
disgusting  rites  were  succeeded  by  drink- 
ing awa,  prepared  in  the  mouths  of  at- 
tendants, and  spit  out  into  a  drinking 


vessel ;  as  the  last  and  most  delicate  at- 
tention, he  was  fed  with  swine-meat 
which  had  been  masticated  for  him  by  a 
filthy  old  man. 

No  one  acquainted  with  the  customs 
of  Polynesia  could  for  a  moment  have 
doubted  that  these  rites  were  intended 
for  adoration.  Captain  King,  in  his  ac- 
count of  this  affair,  only  surmises  that 
such  may  have  been  the  intention,  but 
affects  to  consider  it  more  as  the  evi- 
dence of  great  respect  and  friendship. 
The  natives  say  that  Cook  performed 
his  part  in  this  heathen  farce,  without 
the  slightest  opposition.  The  numerous 
offerings,  the  idols  and  temples  to  which 
he  was  borne,  the  long  prayers,  recita- 
tions and  chants  addressed  to  him,  must 
have  carried  conviction  to  his  mind  that 
it  was  intended  for  religious  homage, 
and  the  whole  ceremony  a  species  of 
deification  or  consecration  of  himself. 
If  this  were  not  enough,  the  fearful 
respect  shown  by  the  common  people, 
who,  if  he  walked  out,  fled  at  his  pres- 
ence, or  fell  and  worshiped  him,  was 
sufficient  to  have  convinced  the  most 
sceptical  mind.  What  opinion  then  can 
be  entertained  of  a  highly  gifted  man, 
who  could  thus  lend  himself  to  strengthen 
and  perpetuate  the  dark  superstitions  of 
heathenism  ?  The  apology  offered  was 
the  expediency  of  thus  securing  a  pow- 
erful influence  over  the  minds  of  the 
islanders,  an  expediency  that  terminated 
in  his  destruction.  While  the  delusion 
of  his  divinity  lasted,  the  whole  island 
was  heavily  taxed  to  supply  the  wants 
of  the  ships,  or  contribute  to  the  gratifi- 
cation of  their  officers  and  crews,  and,  as 
was  customary  in  such  gifts,  no  return 
expected.  Their  kindnesses,  and  the 
general  jubilee  which  reigned,  gave  a 
most  favorable  impression  of  native  char- 
acter to  their  visitors.  Had  their  ac- 
quaintance with  the  language  been  bet- 
ter, and  their  intercourse  with  the  com- 
mon people  more  extensive,  it  would 
have  appeared  in  its  true  light,  as  the 
result  of  a  thorough  despotism.  On  the 
19th,  Captain  Cook  visited  another 
I  heiau,  or  more  properly  a  residence  of 
|  the  priests,  with  the  avowed  expectation 
|  of  receiving  similar  homage  ;  nor  was 
j  he  disappointed.  Curiosity,  and  a  de- 
sire to  depict  the  scene,  seemed  to  have 


56 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


been  his  motives  in  this  case,  for  he 
took  an  artist  with  him,  who  sketched 
the  group.  Ever  afterward,  on  landing, 
a  priest  attended  him  and  regulated  the 
religious  ceremonies  which  constantly 
took  place  in  his  honor;  offerings,  chants 
and  addresses  met  him  at  every  point. 
For  a  brief  period  he  moved  among 
them,  an  earthly  deity;  observed,  feared 
and  worshiped. 

The  islanders  rendered  much  assist- 
ance in  fitting  the  ships,  and  preparing 
them  for  their  voyages,  but  constantly 
indulged  in  their  national  vice,  theft. 
The  highest  chiefs  were  not  above  it, 
nor  of  using  deception  in  trade. 

On  the  24th  of  January,  Kalaniopuu 
arrived  from  Maui,  on  which  occasion 
a  taboo  was  laid  upon  the  natives,  by 
which  they  were  confined  to  their  houses. 
By  this,  the  daily  supply  of  vegetables 
was  prevented  from  reaching  the  vessels, 
which  annoyed  their  crews  exceedingly, 
and  they  endeavored,  by  threats  and 
promises,  to  induce  the  natives  to  vio- 
late the  restriction.  Several  attempted 
to  do  so,  but  were  restrained  by  a  chief, 
who,  for  thus  enforcing  obedience  among 
his  own  subjects,  had  a  musket  fired  over 
his  head  from  one  of  the  ships.  This 
intimidated  him,  and  the  people  were 
allowed  to  ply  their  usual  traffic.* 

Kalaniopuu  and  his  chiefs  visited  Cap- 
tain Cook  on  the  26th,  with  great  par- 
ade. They  occupied  three  large  double 
canoes,  in  the  foremost  of  which  were 
the  king  and  his  retinue.  Feathered 
cloaks  and  gaudy  helmets  glanced  in  the 
bright  sunlight,  and  with  their  long, 
shining  lances,  gave  them  a  martial  ap- 
pearance. In  the  second  came  the  high 
priest  and  his  brethren,  with  their  hide- 
ous idols ;  the  third  was  filled  with 
offerings  of  swine  and  fruits.  After 
paddling  around  the  ships  to  the  solemn 
chanting  of  the  priests,  the  whole  party 
made  for  the  shore,  and  landed  at  the 
observatory,  where  Captain  Cook  re- 
ceived them  in  a  tent.  The  king  threw 
his  own  cloak  over  the  shoulders  of 
Cook,  put  his  helmet  upon  his  head,  and 
in  his  hand  a  curious  fan.  He  also  pre- 
sented him  with  several  other  cloaks,  all 
of  great  value  and  beauty.  The  other 
gifts  were  then  bestowed,  and  the  cere- 

*  Cook's  Voyages,  vol.  3,  p.  16 :  London,  1785. 


mony  concluded  by  an  exchange  of 
names,  the  greatest  pledge  of  friendship. 
The  priests  then  approached,  made  their 
offerings,  and  went  through  the  usual 
religious  rites,  interspersed  with  chants 
and  responses  by  the  chief  actors. 

Kamehameha  was  present  at  this  in- 
terview. Captain  King  describes  his 
j  face  as  the  most  savage  he  ever  beheld  ; 
its  natural  ugliness  being  heightened  by 
a  "  dirty  brown  paste  or  powder,"  plas- 
tered over  his  hair.  The  formalities  of 
I  this  meeting  over,  the  king  and  a  num- 
ber of  his  chiefs  were  carried  in  the  pin- 
nace to  the  flag-ship,  where  they  were 
received  with  all  due  honors.  In  return 
for  the  magnificent  presents,  Cook  gave 
Kalaniopuu  a  linen  shirt  and  his  own 
hanger.  While  these  visits  were  being 
exchanged,  profound  silence  was  ob- 
served throughout  the  bay  and  on  the 
shore.  Not  a  canoe  was  afloat,  nor  an 
inhabitant  to  be  seen,  except  a  few  who 
lay  prostrate  on  the  ground. 

The  taboo  interdicting  the  inhabitants 
from  visiting  the  ships  was  removed  at 
the  request  of  Captain  Cook,  so  far  as 
it  related  to  the  men.  No  relaxation 
could  be  obtained  for  the  women,  who 
were  forbidden  all  communication  with 
the  whites ;  the  result  of  some  unusual 
precaution,  either  to  prevent  the  increase 
of  venereal  disease,  which  had  already 
worked  its  way  to  the  extremities  of  the 
group,  or  of  an  unwonted  jealousy. 

The  same  boundless  hospitality  and 
kindness  continued.  All  their  simple 
resources  were  brought  into  requisition 
to  amuse  the  followers  of  Lono,  who,  in 
companies  or  singly,  traversed  the  coun- 
try in  many  directions,  receiving  services 
and  courtesy  everywhere,  which  to  the 
givers  were  amply  repaid  by  their  gra- 
cious reception.  Notwitstanding  this 
good  feeling,  they  contrived,  as  hereto- 
fore, to  pilfer;  for  which  small  shot 
were  fired  at  the  offenders,  and  finally 
one  was  flogged  on  board  the  Discovery. 

On  the  2d  of  February,  at  the  desire 
of  the  commander,  Captain  King  pro- 
posed to  the  priests  to  purchase  for  fuel 
the  railing  which  surrounded  the  top  of 
the  heiau.  In  this,  Cook  manifested  as 
litttle  respect  for  the  religion  in  the  my- 
thology of  which  he  figured  so  con- 
spicuously, as  scruples  in  violating  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


57 


divine  precepts  of  his  own.  Indeed, 
throughout  his  voyages,  a  spirit  regard- 
less of  the  rights  and  feelings  of  others, 
when  his  own  were  interested,  is  mani- 
fested, especially  in  the  last  cruise,  which 
is  a  blot  upon  his  memory.  It  is  an  un- 
pleasant task  to  disturb  the  ashes  of  one 
whom  a  nation  reveres ;  but  truth  de- 
mands that  justice  should  be  dispensed 
equally  to  the  savage,  and  to  the  civilized 
man.  The  historian  cannot  so  far  prove 
false  to  his  subject,  as  to  shipwreck  fact 
in  the  current  of  popular  opinion.  When 
necessary,  he  must  stem  it  truthfully 
and  manfully. 

To  the  great  surprise  of  the  proposer, 
the  wood  was  readily  given,  and  nothing 
stipulated  in  return.  In  carrying  it  to 
the  boats,  all  of  the  idols  were  taken 
with  it.  King,  who  from  the  first  doubt- 
ed the  propriety  of  the  request,  fearing 
it  might  be  considered  an  act  of  im- 
piety, says  he  spoke  to  the  high  priest 
upon  the  subject,  who  simply  desired 
that  the  central  one  might  be  restored. 
If  we  are  to  believe  him,  no  open  re- 
sentment was  expressed  for  this  deed, 
and  not  even  opposition  shown.  This  is 
highly  improbable,  when  the  usual  re- 
spect entertained  by  the  natives  for  their 
temples  and  divinities  is  considered ;  and 
in  no  case  could  their  religious  senti- 
ments have  been  more  shocked.  If  they 
were  silent,  it  was  owing  to  the  greater 
fear  and  reverence  with  which  they  then 
regarded  Cook. 

Ledyard,  who  was  one  of  the  party 
employed  to  'remove  the  fence,  gives  a 
much  more  credible  account,  and  which 
differs  so  much  from  the  other,  that  it  is 
impossible  to  reconcile  the  two.  King, 
in  his  narrative  of  this  and  subsequent 
events,  manifests  a  strong  desire  to 
shield  the  memory  of  his  commander 
from  all  blame.  Consequently,  he  passes 
lightly  over,  or  does  not  allude  to  many 
circumstances  which  were  neither  cre- 
ditable to  his  judgment  nor  humanity. 

Ledyard,  in  his  relation,  states  that 
Cook  offered  two  iron  hatchets  for  the 
fence,  which  were  indignantly  refused, 
both  from  horror  at  the  proposal,  and 
the  inadequate  price.  Upon  this  denial, 
he  gave  orders  to  his  men,  to  break 
down  the  fence  and  carry  it  to  the  boats, 
while  he  cleared  the  way.  This  was 
8 


done,  and  the  images  taken  off  and  de- 
stroyed by  a  few  sailors,  in  the  presence 
of  the  priests  and  chiefs,  who  had  not 
sufficient  resolution  to  prevent  this  de- 
secration of  their  temple,  and  insult  to 
the  names  of  their  ancestors.  Cook 
once  more  offered  the  hatchets,  and  with 
the  same  result.  Not  liking  the  imputa- 
tion of  taking  the  property  forcibly,  he 
told  them  to  take  them  or  nothing.  The 
priest  to  whom  he  spoke,  trembled  with 
emotion,  but  still  refused.  They  were 
then  rudely  thrust  into  the  folds  of  his 
garment,  whence,  not  deigning  to  take 
them  himself,  they  were  taken,  at  his 
order,  by  one  of  his  attendants.  During 
this  scene,  a  concourse  of  natives  had 
assembled,  arid  expressed  their  sense  of 
the  wrong  in  no  quiet  mood.  Some  en- 
deavored to  replace  the  fence  and 
images,  but  they  were  finally  got  safely 
on  board. 

About  this  juncture,  the  master's 
mate  of  the  Resolution  had  been  ordered 
to  bring  off  the  rudder  of  that  ship,  which 
had  been  sent  ashore  for  repairs.  Being 
too  heavy  for  his  men,  he  requested  the 
assistance  of  the  natives.  Either  from 
sport  or  design,  they  worked  confusedly 
and  embarrassed  the  whites.  The  mate 
angrily  struck  several.  A  chief  who 
was  present,  interposed.  He  was  haugh- 
tily told  to  order  his  men  to  labor  prop- 
erly. This  he  was  not  disposed  to  do, 
or  if  he  had  done,  his  people  were  in  no 
humor  to  comply.  They  hooted  and 
mocked  at  the  whites ;  stones  began  to 
fly,  and  the  exasperated  crew  snatched 
up  some  treenails  that  laid  near  by,  and 
commenced  plying  them  vigorously  about 
the  heads  and  shoulders  of  their  assail- 
ants. The  fray  increased,  and  a  guard 
of  marines  was  ordered  out  to  intimidate 
the  crowd ;  but  they  were  so  furiously 
pelted  with  stones,  that  they  gladly  re- 
tired, leaving  the  ground  in  possession 
of  its  owners. 

Other  causes  were  at  work  augment- 
ing the  dissatisfaction,  which  the  near 
departure  of  the  ships  alone  prompted 
them  to  conceal.  Familiarity  tends 
greatly  to  destroy  influence  even  with 
the  most  powerful.  Cook  and  his  com- 
panions had  become  common  objects, 
and  the  passions  they  constantly  display- 
ed, so  like  thek  own,  lessened  the  awe 


53 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


with  which  they  were  at  first  regarded. 
The  death  and  burial  ashore  of  a  sea- 
man had  greatly  shaken  their  faith  in 
their  divine  origin.  The  most  cogent 
reason  operating  to  create  a  revulsion 
of  feeling,  was  the  enormous  taxes  with 
which  the  whole  island  was  burthened 
to  maintain  them.  Their  offerings  to 
senseless  gods  were  comparatively  few, 
but  daily  and  hourly  were  they  required 
for  Cook  and  his  followers.  They  had 
arrived  lean  and  hungry — they  were  now 
fat  and  sleek — qualities  which  seemed 
only  to  increase  the  voracious  appetites 
of  the  seamen.  The  natives,  really 
alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  a  famine,  for 
their  supplies  were  never  over-abundant 
for  themselves,  by  expressive  signs  urged 
them  to  leave.  The  glad  tidings  that 
the  day  for  sailing  was  nigh,  soon 
spread,  and  the  rejoicing  people,  at  the 
command  of  their  chief,  prepared  a 
farewell  present  of  food,  cloth  and  other 
articles,  which  in  quantity  and  value, 
far  exceeded  any  which  had  heretofore 
been  received.  They  were  all  taken  on 
board,  and  nothing  given  in  recompense. 
The  magnitude  of  the  gifts  from  the 
savage,  and  the  meanness  of  those  from 
the  white  men,  must  excite  the  surprise 
of  any  one  who  peruses  the  narrative  of 
this  voyage. 

As  a  return  for  the  wrestling  and 
boxing  matches,  the  natives  were  enter- 
tained with  a  display  of  fire-works,  which 
created  the  greatest  alarm  and  astonish- 
ment. They  very  naturally  considered 
them  flying  devils,  or  spirits,  and  nothing 
impressed  them  more  forcibly  with  the 
great  superiority  of  the  arts  and  powrer 
of  the  white  men. 

On  the  4th  of  February,  the  ships 
sailed,  but  were  becalmed  in  sight  of 
land  during  that  and  the  following  day, 
which  gave  Kalaniopuu  a  fresh  occasion 
to  exercise  his  hospitality,  by  sending 
off  a  gift  of  fine  hogs  and  many  vege- 
tables. His  first  and  last  intercourse 
being  similar  acts,  while  his  friendship, 
during  the  whole  visit,  was  of  the  ut- 
most service  to  the  exhausted  crews. 

But  the  joy  of  the  inhabitants  was 
destined  to  be  of  short  duration.  In  a 
gale  that  occurred  shortly  after,  the 
foremast  of  the  Resolution  was  sprung, 
which  obliged  the  vessels  to  return. 


They  anchored  in  their  former  situation 
on  the  llth  of  the  same  month,  and  sent 
the  spar  and  necessary  materials  for  re- 
pairing it  ashore,  with  a  small  guard  of 
marines.  Their  tents  were  pitched  in 
the  heiau  formerly  occupied.  The 
priests,  though  friendly,  expressed  no 
great  satisfaction  at  this  event,  but  re- 
newed their  good  services  by  proclaim- 
ing the  place  taboo.  The  damaged  sails, 
with  the  workmen,  were  accommodated 
in  a  house  belonging  to  them. 

Cook's  reception  this  time  presented 
a  striking  contrast  to  his  last.  An 
ominous  quiet  everywhere  prevailed.* 
Not  a  native  appeared  to  bid  them  wel- 
come. A  boat  being  sent  ashore  to  in- 
quire the  cause,  returned  with  the  in- 
formation that  the  king  was  away,  and 
had  left  the  bay  under  a  strict  taboo. 
The  sudden  appearance  of  the  ships  had 
created  a  suspicion  of  their  intentions. 
Another  visit  as  expensive  as  the  former, 
would  entirely  have  drained  their  re- 
sources. Intercourse  was  soon  renewed, 
but  with  a  faintness  which  bespoke  its 
insincerity.  The  connections  formed 
by  many  of  their  females  with  the  for- 
eigners, to  whom  some  were  attached, 
served,  so  says  native  authority,  to  ex- 
asperate the  men. 

The  former  injudicious  violation  of 
the  taboos,  both  by  seamen  and  officers, 
sometimes  ignorantly,  and  often  in  con- 
tempt of  what  appeared  to  them  whim- 
sical and  arbitrary  restrictions,  had 
aroused  the  prejudices  of  the  mass.  The 
women  in  particular  had  been  tempted, 
though  shuddering  at  the  expected  con- 
sequences, to  violate  the  sacred  pre- 
cincts of  the  heiau,  which  had  been 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  Cook  for  an 
observatory  and  workshop,  upon  the 
condition  that  no  seaman  should  leave 
it  after  sunset,  and  no  native  be  allowed 
to  enter  it  by  night.  The  immunity  from 
supernatural  punishment  with  which 
these  restrictions  had  been  broken 
through  on  both  sides,  at  first  secretly, 
then  openly,  had  encouraged  further 
disregard  of  their  religious  observances. 
As  no  attempts  had  been  made  on  the 
part  of  the  officers  to  prevent  these  in- 
fringements, the  mutual  agreement  to 
which  was  considered  by  the  chiefs  in 


Ledyard'a  Life,  by  Sparks,  p.  105. 


HISTORY   OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


59 


the  light  of  a  sacred  compact,  they  felt 
a  natural  irritation.  The  most  sacred 
portion  of  the  heiau  had  been  used  as  a 
hospital,  and  for  a  sail-loft ;  with  the 
natives,  highly  sacrilegious  acts  ;  and 
they  manifested  their  disapprobation  by 
burning  the  house  which  stood  there,  as 
soon  as  the  shore  party  evacuated  it. 
From  these  and  similar  causes,  all  ami- 
cable feeling  soon  came  to  an  end.  Dis- 
putes arose  in  traffic.  The  bay  was 
again  laid  under  taboo.  Affairs  went 
on  smoothly  until  the  afternoon  of  the 
13th,  when  some  chiefs  ordered  the  na- 
tives who  were  employed  in  watering 
the  ships,  to  disperse ;  at  the  same  time, 
the  natives  gave  indications  of  an  at- 
tack, by  arming  themselves  with  stones. 
Captain  King  approaching  with  a  ma- 
rine, they  were  thrown  aside,  and  the 
laborers  suffered  to  continue  their  work. 
Cook,  upon  being  informed  of  these  par- 
ticulars, gave  orders,  if  the  natives  threw 
stones,  or  behaved  insolently,  to  fire 
upon  them  with  balls. 

Soon  after,  muskets  were  discharged 
from  the  Discovery  at  a  canoe,  which 
was  being  paddled  in  great  haste  for  the 
shore,  closely  pursued  by  one  of  the 
ship's  boats.  In  the  narrative,  a  bold 
theft  is  said  to  have  been  the  occasion 
of  this  proceeding.  The  natives  state  it 
was  caused  by  their  expressing  dissatis- 
faction on  account  of  the  women,  and 
that  the  foreigners  seized  a  canoe  be- 
longing to  Palea,  who,  in  endeavoring 
to  recover  it,  was  knocked  down  with  a 
paddle  by  one  of  the  white  men.  This 
occurred  during  the  absence  of  Cook,  as 
he,  with  King  and  a  marine,  had  en- 
deavored, by  running  along  the  beach, 
to  cut  off  the  flying  canoe,  but  arrived 
too  late  to  seize  the  occupants.  They 
then  followed  the  runaways  for  some 
miles  into  the  country,  but  being  con- 
stantly misled  by  the  people,  they  gave 
over  their  futile  chase.  The  narrative 
agrees  with  the  native  account  in  the 
other  particulars.  The  officer  in  charge 
of  the  pursuing  boat  was  on  his  return 
with  the  goods  which  had  been  restored, 
when,  seeing  the  deserted  canoe,  he 
seized  it.  Palea,  the  owner,  at  the  same 
instant  arrived,  and  claimed  his  property, 
denying  all  knowledge  of  the  robbery. 
The  officer  refused  to  give  it  up;  and  in 


the  scuffle  which  ensued,  the  chief  was 
knocked  down  by  one  of  the  crew.  The 
natives,  who  had  hitherto  looked  qui- 
etly on,  now  interfered  with  showers  of 
stones,  which  drove  the  whites  into  the 
water,  where  they  swam  to  a  rock  out  of 
reach  of  missiles.  The  pinnace  was 
seized  and  plundered,  and  would  soon 
have  been  destroyed,  had  not  Palea,  who 
had  recovered  from  the  stunning  effects 
of  the  blow,  exerted  his  authority  and 
drove  away  the  crowd.  He  then  made 
signs  to  the  crew  to  come  and  take  the 
pinnace,  which  they  did  ;  he  restored  to 
them  all  the  articles  which  could  be  ob- 
tained, at  the  same  time  expressing  much 
concern  at  the  affray.  The  parties  sepa- 
rated in  all  apparent  friendship,  but 
mutual  suspicion  prevailed.  Cook  pre- 
pared for  decisive  measures,  and  ordered 
every  islander  to  be  turned  out  of  the 
ships.  The  guards  were  doubled  at  the 
heiau.  At  midnight  a  sentinel  fired 
upon  a  native,  who  was  detected  skulk- 
ing about  the  walls.  Palea  taking  ad- 
vantage of  the  darkness,  either  in  re- 
venge for  his  blow,  or  avaricious  of  the 
iron  fastenings,  stole  one  of  the  Discov- 
ery's cutters  which  was  moored  to  a  buoy. 
Early  the  ensuing  morning,  Sunday, 
the  14th,  Cook  determined  upon  a  bold 
and  hazardous  step  to  recover  the  boat. 
It  was  one  which  he  had  on  previous  oc- 
casions successfully  practiced.  His  in- 
tention was  to  secure  the  king  or  some 
of  the  royal  family,  and  confine  them  on 
board  until  the  cutter  was  restored,  and 
as  hostages  for  future  good  conduct. 
This  could  be  done  only  by  surprise  or 
treachery.  Blinded  by  self-confidence  to 
the  peril  of  the  attempt,  he  trusted  for 
its  success  to  the  reverence  of  the  na- 
tives for  his  person.  If  the  cutter  could 
not  be  recovered  by  peaceable  means, 
he  gave  orders  to  seize  every  canoe 
which  should  endeavor  to  leave  the  bay. 
Clerke,  the  second  in  command,  on 
whom  the  duty  devolved  to  lead  the 
shore  expedition,  being  too  ill,  begged 
Cook  to  take  the  command.  To  this  he 
agreed.  The  account  by  Ledyard  of  the 
transactions  that  followed,  of  which  he 
was  an  eye-witness,  being  near  his  com- 
mander when  he  fell,  is  so  explicit,  and 
agrees  so  well  with  the  statements  of 
the  natives,  that  I  give  it  entire  : 


60 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


"  Cook,  previous  to  his  landing-,  made  some  addi- 
tional arrangements  respecting  the  possible  event  of 
things,  though  it  is  certain  from  the  appearance  of 
the  subsequent  arrangements,  that  he  guarded  more 
against  the  flight  of  Teraiobu,  or  those  he  could  wish 
to  see,  than  from  an  attack,  or  even  much  insult.  The 
disposition  of  our  guards,  when  the  movements  began, 
was  thus :  Cook  in  his  pinnace  with  six  private  ma- 
rines; a  corporal,  sergeant  and  two  lieutenants  of 
marines  went  ahead,  followed  by  the  launch  with  other 
marines  and  seamen  on  one  quarter,  and  the  small 
cutter  on  the  other,  with  only  the  crew  on  board.  This 
part  of  the  guard  rowed  for  Kealakeakua.  Our  large 
cutter  and  two  boats  from  the  Discovery  had  orders  to 
proceed  to  the  mouth  of  the  bay,  form  at  equal  dis- 
tances across,  and  prevent  any  communication  by 
water  fi-om  any  other  part  of  the  island  to  the  towns 
within  the  bay,  or  from  those  without.  Cook  lauded 
at  Kiverua — Kaawaloa — about  nine  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  with  the  marines  in  the  pinnace,  and  went 
by  a  circuitous  march  to  the  house  of  Teraiobu,  in 
order  to  evade  the  suspicion  of  any  design.  This  route 
led  through  a  considerable  part  of  the  town,  which  dis- 
covered every  symptom  of  mischief,  though  Cook, 
blinded  by  some  fatal  cause,  could  not  perceive  it,  or 
too  self-confident,  would  not  regard  it. 

"  The  town  was  evacuated  by  the  women  and  chil- 
dren, who  had  retired  to  the  circumjacent  hills,  and 
appeared  almost  destitute  of  men ;  but  there  were  at 
that  time  two  hundred  chiefs,  and  more  than  twice 
that  number  of  other  men,  detached  and  secreted  in 
different  parts  of  the  houses  nearest  to  Teraiobu,  ex- 
clusive of  unknown  numbers  without  the  skirts  of  the 
town ;  and  those  that  were  seen  were  dressed  many  of 
them  in  black.  When  the  guard  reached  Teraiobu's 
house,  Cook  ordered  the  lieutenant  of  marines  to  go  in 
and  see  if  he  was  at  home,  and  if  he  was,  to  bring  him 
out.  The  lieutenant  went  in,  and  found  the  old  man 
sitting  with  two  or  three  old  women  of  distinction ; 
and  when  he  gave  Teraiobu  to  understand  that  Cook 
was  without  and  wanted  to  see  him,  he  discovered  the 
greatest  marks  of  uneasiness,  but  arose  and  accom- 
panied the  lieutenant  out,  holding  his  hand.  When  he 
came  before  Cook,  he  squatted  down  upon  his  hams  as 
a  mark  of  humiliation,  and  Cook  took  him  by  the 
hand  from  the  lieutenant,  and  conversed  with  him. 

"  The  appearance  of  our  parade  both  by  water  and 
on  shore,  though  conducted  with  the  utmost  silence, 
and  with  as  little  ostentation  as  possible,  had  alarmed 
the  towns  on  both  sides  of  the  bay,  but  particularly 
Kiverua,  where  the  people  were  in  complete  order  for 
an  onset ;  otherwise  it  would  have  been  a  matter  of 
surprise,  that  though  Cook  -did  not  see  twenty  men  in 
passing  through  the  town,  yet  before  he  had  conversed 
ten  minutes  with  Teraiobu,  he  was  surrounded  by 
three  or  four  hundred  people,  and  above  half  of  them 
chiefs.  Cook  grew  uneasy  when  he  observed  this,  and 
was  the  more  urgent  to  have  Teraiobu  to  go  on  board, 
and  actually  persuaded  the  old  man  to  go  at  length, 
and  led  him  within  a  rod  or  two  of  the  shore ;  but  the 
just  fears  and  conjectures  of  the  chiefs  at  last  inter- 
posed. They  held  the  old  man  back,  and  one  of  the 
chiefs  threatened  Cook,  when  he  attempted  to  make 
them  quit  Teraiobu.  Some  of  the  crowd  now  cried  out 
that  Cook  was  going  to  take  their  king  from  them  and 
kill  him;  and  there  was  one  in  particular  that  ad- 
vanced towards  Cook  in  an  attitude  that  alarmed  one 
of  the  guard,  who  presented  his  bayonet  and  opposed 
him,  acquainting  Cook  in  the  meantime  of  the  danger 
of  his  situation,  and  that  the  Indians  in  a  few  minutes 
would  attack  him ;  that  he  had  overheard  the  man, 
whom  .he  had  just  stopped  from  rushing  in  upon  him, 
say  that  our  boats  which  were  out  in  the  harbor  had 
just  killed  his  brother,  and  he  would  be  revena-ed. 
Cook  attended  to  what  this  man  said,  and  desired  him 
to  show  him  the  Indian  that  had  dared  to  attempt  a 
combat  with  him ;  and  as  soon  as  he  was  pointed  out, 
Cook  fired  at  him  with  a  blank.  The  Indian  perceiv- 
ing he  received  no  damage  from  the  fire,  rushed  from 
without  the  crowd  a  second  time,  and  threatened  any 
one  that  should  oppose  him.  Cook,  perceiving  this, 
fired  a  ball,  which  entering  the  Indian's  groin,  he  fell, 
and  was  drawn  off  by  the  rest. 

"  Cook  perceiving  the  people  determined  to  oppose 
his  designs,  and  that  he  should  not  succeed  without 
further  bloodshed,  ordered  the  lieutenant  of  marines, 
Mr.  Phillips,  to  withdraw  his  men  and  get  them  into 
the  boats,  which  were  then  lying  ready  to  receive  them. 
This  was  effected  by  the  sergeant;  but  the  instant 
they  began  to  retreat,  Cook  was  hit  with  a  stone,  and 
perceiving  the  man  who  threw  it,  shot  him  dead.  The 


officers  in  the  boats  observing  the  guard  retreat,  and 
hearing  this  third  discharge,  ordered  the  boats  to  five. 
This  occasioned  the  guard  to  face  about  and  fire,  and 
then  the  attack  became  general.  Cook  and  Mr.  Phil- 
lips were  together  a  few  paces  in  the  rear  of  the  guard, 
and  perceiving  a  general  fire  without  orders,  quitted 
Teraiobu,  and  ran  to  the  shore  to  put  a  stop  to  it ;  but 
not  being  able  to  make  themselves  heard,  and  being 
close  pressed  upon  by  the  chiefs,  they  joined  the  guard, 
who  fired  as  they  retreated.  Cook  having  at  length 
reached  the  margin  of  the  water,  between  the  fire  of 
the  boats,  waved  with  his  hat  for  them  to  cease  firing 
and  come  in ;  and  while  he  was  doing  this,  a  chief  from 
behind  stabbed  him  with  one  of  our  iron  dagger?,  just 
under  the  shoulder-blade,  and  it  passed  quite  through 
his  body.  Cook  fell  with  his  face  in  the  water,  and 
immediately  expired.  Mr.  Phillips,  not  being  able 
any  longer  to  use  his  fusee,  drew  his  sword,  and  en- 
gaging the  chief  whom  he  saw  kill  Cook,  soon  des- 
patched him.  His  guard  in  the  meantime  were  all 
killed  but  two,  and  they  had  plunged  into  the  water, 
and  were  swimming  to  the  boats.  He  stood  thus  for 
some  time  the  butt  of  all  their  force,  and  being  as  com- 
plete in  the  use  of  the  sword  as  he  was  accomplished, 
his  noble  achievements  struck  the  barbarians  with 
awe ;  but  being  wounded,  and  growing  faint  from  loss 
of  blood  and  excessive  action,  he  plunged  into  the  sea 
with  his  sword  in  his  hand,  and  swam  to  the  boats  ; 
where,  however,  he  was  scarcely  taken  on  board,  be- 
fore somebody  saw  one  of  the  marines,  that  had  swam 
from  the  shore,  lying  flat  upon  the  bottom.  Phillips 
hearing  this,  ran  aft,  threw  himself  in  after  him,  and 
brought  him  up  with  him  to  the  surface  of  tlie  water, 
and  both  were  taken  in. 

"  The  boats  had  hitherto  kept  up  a  very  hot  fire,  and 
lying  off  without  the  reach  of  any  weapons  but  stones, 
had  received  no  damage,  and,  being  fully  at  leisure  to 
keep  up  an  unremitted  and  uniform  action,  made 
great  havoc  among  the  Indians,  particularly  among 
the  chiefs,  who  stood  foremost  in  the  crowd  and  were 
most  exposed ;  but  whether  it  was  from  their  bravery, 
or  ignorance  of  the  real  cause  that  deprived  so  many 
of  them  of  life,  that  they  made  such  a  stand,  may  be 
questioned,  since  it  is  certain  that  they  in  general,  if 
not  universally,  understood  heretofore  that  it  was  the 
fire  only  of  our  arms  that  destroyed  them.  This  opin- 
ion seems  to  be  strengthened  by  the  circumstance  of 
the  large,  thick  mats  they  were  observed  to  wear, 
which  were  also  constantly  kept  wet ;  and,  further- 
more, the  Indian  that  Cook  fired  at  with  a  blank  dis- 
covered no  fear  when  he  found  his  mat  unburnt, 
saying  in  their  language,  when  he  showed  it  to  the 
by-standers,  that  no  fire  had  touched  it.  This  may  be 
supposed  at  least  to  have  had  some  influence.  It  is, 
however,  certain,  whether  from  one  or  both  these 
causes,  that  the  numbers  that  fell  made  no  apparent 
impression  on  those  who  survived ;  they  were  imme- 
diately taken  off,  and  had  their  places  supplied  in  a 
constant  succession. 

"  Lieutenant  Gore,  who  commanded  as  first  lieuten- 
ant under  Cook  in  the  Resolution,  which  lay  opposite 
the  place  where  this  attack  was  made,  perceiving  with 
his  glass  that  the  guard  on  shore  was  cut  off,  and  that 
Cook  had  fallen,  immediately  passed  a  spring  upon 
one  of  the  cables,  and,  bringing  the  ship's  starboard 
guns  to  bear,  fired  two  round  shot  over  the  boats  into 
the  middle  of  the  crowd ;  and  both  the  thunder  of  the 
cannon  and  the  effects  of  the  shot  operated  so  power- 
fully, that  it  produced  a  most  precipitate  retreat  from 
the  shore  to  the  town."— Sparks'  Life  of  Ledyard. 

The  following,  translated  from  Ha- 
waiian documents,  briefly  recounts  the 
particulars : 

"  The  captain  demanded  that  the  king  should  ob- 
tain and  restore  the  boat,  but  this  could  not  be  done, 
as  it  had  been  demolished  by  the  natives  for  the  sake 
of  its  iron.  Captain  Cook  went  on  shore  with  a  party 
of  his  armed  men  to  fetch  the  king  on  board  his  ship, 
and  detain  him  there  till  the  boat  should  be  restored. 
While  he  was  endeavoring  to  accomplish  this  object, 
Kekuhaupio  crossed  the  bay  from  Keeia  to  Kaawaloa, 
accompanied  by  Kalimu,  another  chief,  in  a  separate 
canoe.  They  were  fired  upon  from  the  ship,  and  Ka- 
limu was  killed,  on  which  Kekuhaupio  rowed  rapidly 
to  Kaawaloa  and  employed  his  influence  to  dissuade 
Kalaniopuu  from  going  to  the  ship.  On  the  circula- 
tion of  the  news  of  Kaiimu's  death,  the  people  became 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


61 


clamorous  for  revenge,  and  one  with  a  short  dagger  in 
his  hand  approached  Captain  Cook,  who,  apprehensive 
of  danger,  tired  his  gun  at  him.  The  contest  now  be- 
came general.  The  captain  having  with  his  sword 
struck  Kalaimano-kahoowaha,  a  chief,  he  seized  him 
with  his  powerful  hand  in  order  to  hold  him,  but  with 
no  idea  of  taking1  his  life,  Lono  being,  as  the  chief  sup- 
posed, a  god,  could  not  die.  But  on  his  crying  out,  as 
he  was  about  to  fall,  the  chief  concluded  he  was  a 
man — not  a  god — and  therefore  killed  him.  Then  the 
foreigners  in  the  boat  discharged  their  muskets,  and 
many  of  the  natives  were  cut  down  by  their  fire, 
against  which  they  found  the  mats  that  were  em- 
ployed to  shield  them,  a  poor  defence.  Guns  also  on 
board  the  ship  were  discharged,  which  killed  others, 
so  that  Kalaniopuu  fled  inland  to  the  precipice  with 
his  chiefs  and  people,  taking  with  them  the  body  of 
Captain  Cook  and  four  of  his  companions  who  had 
been  slain.  The  king  then  presented  the  body  of  the 
captain  in  sacrifice,  and  after  the  ceremony  was  per- 
formed, proceeded  to  remove  the  flesh  from  the  bones, 
to  preserve  them.  The  flesh  was  consumed  with  fire. 
The  heart  was  eaten  by  some  children,  who  had  mis- 
taken it  for  that  of  a  dog.  Their  names  were  Kupa, 
Mohoole  and  Kaiwikokoole.  Some  of  the  bones  of  the 
captain  were  afterwards  returned  to  the  ship,  and  the 
rest  preserved  by  the  priests  and  worshiped." 

Captain  King's  relation  differs  not 
materially  from  those  given.  He  states 
that  Cook,  after  conversing  with  Kala- 
niopuu, though  he  was  satisfied  that  he 
was  innocent  of  the  theft,  still  deter- 
mined to  persevere  in  his  original  de- 
sign. Accordingly  he  invited  him,  with 
his  two  sons,  to  spend  the  day  on  board 
the  Resolution,  to  which  they  readily 
consented;  the  boys  had  actually  em- 
barked, when  their  mother,  with  many 
tears,  dissuaded  the  party  from  going. 
He  also  attributes  Cook's  endeavors  to 
stop  the  firing  of  the  men  to  his  human- 
ity. The  day  before  he  had  given  orders 
to  the  marines  to  fire  upon  the  people, 
if  they  behaved  even  insolently ;  and  it 
is  more  reasonable  to  suppose  that  he 
had  become  alarmed  for  his  own  safety, 
and  wished  not  farther  to  exasperate  the 
natives.  His  look  inspired  consterna- 
tion to  the  last;  and  it  was  not  until  his 
back  was  turned  that  he  received  his 
death-blow.* 

Such  was  the  fate  of  this  celebrated 
navigator,  who  has  identified  his  name 
with  the  islands  which  he  made  known 
to  the  world.  By  his  own  profession  he 
is  regarded  as  a  martyr  to  his  adven- 
turous courage ;  while  his  self-denial, 
patience,  skill  and  enterprise  in  carrying 
out  his  adventurous  voyages,  receive 
merited  praise  from  all.  The  melan- 


*  This  was  received  from  an  iron  dagger  ol  their  own 
make.  Cook  himself  ordered  their  manufacture,  after 
the  model  of  the  native  weapon,  for  the  purposes  of 
trade,  and  his  example  was  followed  by  every  one  who 
could  find  sufficient  iron.  They  were  freely  bartered 
away.  The  day  the  Resolution  put  back,  Kameha- 
meha,  who  slept  on  board  that  night,  obtained  eight 
from  Captain  Clerke  in  exchange  for  a  feather  cloak. 


choly  circumstances  attending  his  un- 
timely end,  created  at  the  time  so  deep 
a  sympathy  in  the  minds  of  not  only  his 
own  countrymen,  but  of  all  maritime  na- 
tions, as  to  entirely  exclude  inquiry  into 
its  causes,  and  to  throw  a  veil  over 
faults,  which  otherwise  would  have  been 
conspicuous,  and  exhibited  his  character 
in  a  more  faithful  light. 

While  it  is  not  my  desire  to  detract 
from  the  fame  lawfully  his  due,  yet  I 
cannot,  with  his  biographers,  gloss  over 
the  events  which  occurred  at  the  Ha- 
waiian Islands.  Perhaps  most  of  the 
errors  he  committed  are  to  be  attributed 
to  his  temper,  which,  to  use  the  cautious 
words  of  his  attached  friend  and  com- 
panion, King,  "  might  have  been  justly 
blamed."  No  one  ever  made  the  ac- 
quaintance of  the  aborigines  of  a  here- 
tofore unknown  land,  under  more  novel, 
yet  favorable  circumstances.  Public 
feeling  had  been  alive  for  many  genera- 
tions, with  the  expectation  of  an  old  and 
beloved  king,  to  be  restored  to  them, 
invested  with  the  attributes  of  divinity. 
When  Cook  arrived,  not  a  doubt  existed 
that  he  was  that  god.  The  resources 
of  the  natives  were  placed  at  his  dis- 
posal. All  that  kindness,  devotion  and 
superstition  could  effect  among  a  bar- 
barous people  was  his.  No  other  navi- 
gator experienced  a  similar  welcome. 
He  had  met  with  a  hostile  spirit  else- 
where, but  here,  so  warm  was  his  wel- 
come, and  so  general  the  joy  that  pre- 
vailed, that  the  worst  features  of  savage 
nature  were  masked ;  and,  in  conse- 
quence, a  favorable  opinion  formed  of 
their  domestic  life  and  government, 
which  later  and  more  extended  investi- 
gations have  not  been  able  to  verify. 
Through  all  his  intercourse,  he  had  but 
one  occasion  of  complaint,  theft.  Have 
the  natives  no  charge  to  bring  against 
him  ?  With  his  influence,  much  might 
have  been  done  toward  enlightening 
their  minds  in  the  fundamental  princi- 
ples of  religion ;  or  at  all  events  he  could 
have  done  as  at  a  later  period  did  Van- 
couver— a  junior  officer  then  with  him — 
whose  justice  and  benevolence  form  a 
strong  contrast  to  the  course  of  Cook. 
By  the  former  they  were  told  of  the  ex- 
istence of  one  God,  the  Creator  alike  of 
them  and  the  whites.  From  the  sup- 


62 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


posed  character  of  the  latter,  his  instruc- 
tions would  have  carried  with  them  the 
force  of  revelation,  and  their  effect  could 
not  have  been  otherwise  than  beneficial. 
What  his  course  was  has  been  shown.* 
Pilfering  and  insolence  were  met  with 
death,  either  dealt  or  ordered  so  to  be, 
without  the  slightest  attempt  to  distin- 
guish between  the  guilty  and  innocent. 
A  chief,  in  executing  a  law  of  his  sov- 
ereign, was  intimidated  by  the  firing  of 
a  musket  over  his  head ;  an  abuse  suffi- 
cient to  aggravate  the  most  forbearing 
race.  The  remonstrances  of  the  men 
for  the  treatment  of  their  women  met 
with  equal  injustice.  No  adequate  re- 
turns for  the  great  quantity  of  food  con- 
sumed were  made.  It  was  given  at  first 
as  a  tribute  to  their  newly  returned  god, 
and  ever  after  expected  on  the  same 
terms.  Yet  all  these  aggravations  did 
not  arouse  the  spirit  of  the  people  to 
resistance;  not  even  the  contempt  so 
openly  cast  upon  their  religion  and  tem- 
ple, until  the  greatest  of  insults  was 
shown,  in  attempting  to  imprison  their 
king,  and  to  carry  him  off  from  amid 
his  own  subjects,  in  utter  violation  of  all 
justice.  If  this  attempt  had  succeeded, 
it  would  not  have  promoted  a  hospitable 
reception  for  the  next  visitors.  But 
even  this  might  have  been  forgiven,  had 
not  a  high  chief,  who  was  peaceably 
crossing  the  bay,  ignorant  of  the  cause 
for  which  the  boats  were  stationed,  been 
killed  by  the  fire  of  one  of  them.  At 
this  wanton  murder,  the  people  could  no 
longer  restrain  their  passions,  though 
Lono  was  in  their  eyes  a  god,  and  im- 
mortal.! They  slew  him.  His  body 


*  This  apathy  is  the  more  remarkable,  as  Kanina,  a 
chief,  whom  Captain  King  describes  as  "  possessing  a 
quickness  of  conception  and  judicious  curiosity  rarely 
to  be  met  with  among  these  people,"  made  many  per- 
tinent inquiries  in  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  English 
government,  their  population,  manufactures,  manners 
and  customs,  wars,  and  particularly  "  who  was  their 
God."  It  is  due  to  Captain  King  to  state  that  he  ap- 
pears on  all  occasions  to  have  endeavored  to  treat  the 
natives  with  justice  and  humanity.  But  his  influence, 
with  that  of  others  who  might  have  been  disposed  to 
join  with  him,  was  altogether  neutralized  by  the  domi- 
nant prejudices  of  Cook.  This  Kanina,  who  had  proved 
himself  a  valuable  friend,  was  killed  in  the  attack. 
It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  in  this  encounter,  the 
real  friends  of  the  English  suffered  far  more  than  their 
enemies ;  a  misfortune  which,  from  the  attending  cir- 
cumstances, could  not  have  been  avoided,  as  those 
most  hostile,  and  those  most  desirous  of  peace,  were 
mixed  together  in  the  crowd,  and  the  affray  more  the 
result  of  accident  than  design. 

t  A  sledge  from  the  Northwest  Coast,  left  by  Cook, 
was  worshiped  by  those  who  continued  to  believe  in 
his  divinity ;  as  were  his  ribs  and  breast-bone,  which 


was  carried  into  the  interior,  the  bones 
cleaned  and  the  flesh  burned,  except  the 
heart  and  liver  which  some  hungry  chil- 
dren stole  in  the  night  and  ate,  suppos- 
ing them  to  belong  to  a  dog.  All  will 
unite  in  deploring  a  result,  which  from 
far  less  aggravation  in  a  civilized  com- 
munity, would  have  terminated  quite  as 
fatally;  with  savages,  it  is  astonishing 
it  did  not  sooner  occur. 

As  soon  as  the  news  of  the  attack  on 
Cook's  party  reached  the  other  side  of 
the  bay,  where  were  the  observatory  and 
the  spars  and  sails  of  the  Resolution,  the 
natives  in  the  vicinity  commenced  an 
assault  upon  the  small  force  stationed  to 
defend  them.  After  being  repulsed, 
they  agreed  to  a  truce,  in  which  all  the 
property  belonging  to  the  ships  was  car- 
ried on  board.  "  Such  was  the  condi- 
tion of  the  ships,  and  the  state  of  dis- 
cipline, that  Captain  King  feared  for  the 
xesult,  if  a  vigorous  attack  had  been 
made  during  the  night." — Vol.  3,  p.  59. 

All  reverence  for  Lono  being  now  ter- 
minated, the  natives  appeared  in  their 
true  character.  They  endeavored  to 
allure  small  parties  ashore,  and  insulted 
the  comrades  of  the  slain  with  the  most 
contemptuous  looks  and  gestures ;  at  the 
same  time  displaying  their  clothes  and 
arms  in  insolent  triumph.  A  breast- 
work was  also  erected  on  the  beach, 
and  the  women  sent  inland.  Intercourse 
however  was  re-established,  with  the 
design  of  obtaining  the  corpse  of  Cook 
and  the  cutter.  Several  natives  came 
off  from  time  to  time  to  the  ships,  de- 
claring their  innocence,  and  informed 
the  commander,  Clerke,  of  the  warlike 
preparations  ashore.  Two  individuals, 
on  the  night  of  the  15th,  brought  off  a 
portion  of  the  flesh  of  Captain  Cook, 
weighing  nine  or  ten  pounds.  The  re- 
mainder, they  said,  had  been  burnt,  and 
the  bones  were  in  possession  of  the 
chiefs.  The  next  day  additional  insults 
were  received,  and  a  man,  wearing 


were  deposited  in  a  temple  dedicated  to  Lono,  on  the 
east  side  of  the  island.  They  were  annually  carried  in 
procession  to  several  other  temples,  or  borne  around 
the  island  to  collect  offerings  for  the  support  of  the 
priests  of  Lono.  Some  expected  Lono  would  re-appear. 
These  bones  were  preserved  in  a  small  wicker  basket, 
covered  over  with  red  feathers.  Their  fate  has  never 
been  ascertained.  It  is  supposed  they  were  hid,  upon 
the  abolition  of  idolatry,  in  a  cave.  Liholiho  is  said  to 
have  carried  a  portion  of  them  to  England,  and  to  have- 
presented  one  of  the  sad  relics  to  the  widow  of  Cook. 


HISTOBT  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLASUS. 


63 


Cook's  hat,  had  the  audacity  to  approach 
the  ships,  and  throw  stones,  in  bravado. 
The  crews  not  being  in  a  temper  for 
further  forbearance,  with  the  permission 
of  their  commander,  fired  some  of  the 
great  guns  at  the  natives  on  shore.  The 
islanders  had  previously  put  themselves 
under  cover,  so  that  not  much  damage 
was  done.  A  few  were  killed,  and  Ka- 
mehameha  was  slightly  wounded  by  a 
blow  received  from  a  stone,  which  had 
been  struck  by  one  of  the  balls. 

On  the  17th,  the  boats  were  sent 
ashore,  strongly  manned,  to  water;  but 
the  annoyance  experienced  from  the  na- 
tives was  so  great,  that  the  work  pro- 
ceeded slowly,  although  under  the  fire 
of  the  heavy  guns  from  the  ships.  In 
all  their  attacks,  the  islanders  displayed 
desperate  bravery.  Orders  were  at  last 
given  to  fire  some  houses,  in  doing 
which  the  whole  village,  with  the  prop- 
erty of  the  friendly  priests,  was  con- 
sumed. The  sailors,  imitating  the  re- 
vengeful passions  of  their  opponents, 
perpetrated  many  cruelties.  A  man,  at- 
tended by  a  dozen  or  more  boys,  bearing 
the  usual  insignia  of  peace,  approached 
and  was  fired  upon.  This  did  not  stop 
them ;  and  when  they  reached  the  com- 
manding officer,  the  herald  was  found  to 
be  the  priest  who  had  performed  the 
services  at  the  consecration  of  Captain 
Cook,  and  who  had  always  showed  him- 
self a  friend.  He  came  to  expostulate 
on  the  ingratitude  of  the  treatment  he 
and  his  brethren  had  received.  The 
men,  who  had  brought  off  the  remains 
of  Cook,  had  assured  them,  from  the 
captains  of  the  ships,  that  their  property 
and  persons  should  be  respected.  Rely- 
ing upon  this  pledge,  they  had  not,  with 
the  other  inhabitants,  removed  their  ef- 
fects to  a  place  of  security,  and  from 
trusting  to  their  promises  had  lost  their 
all.  The  narrative  does  not  state  that 
he  had  received  any  satisfaction  from 
those  for  whom  he  had  exerted  himself 
so  much. 

While  the  hostilities  were  continued 
between  the  two  parties,  numbers  of 
women  remained  cheerfully  on  board  the 
ships,  exhibiting  not  the  slightest  emo- 
tion at  the  heads  of  their  countrymen 
which  were  brought  off,  or  concern  for 
their  relatives  ashore.  While  the  vil- 


lage was  burning,  they  exclaimed,  "a 
very  fine  sight."  A  fact  which  power- 
fully illustrates  the  deep  degradation  of 
their  sex,  which  could  thus  find  amuse- 
ment in  the  sufferings  of  their  fellows 
and  injuries  to  their  country. 

On  the  evening  of  the  18th,  messen- 
gers were  sent  to  sue  for  peace ;  they 
carried  with  them  the  usual  presents, 
which  were  received  with  the  assurance 
that  it  would  be  granted,  when  the  re- 
mains of  Cook  were  restored.  From 
them  it  was  learned  that  all  the  bodies 
of  the  marines  who  fell  had  been  burnt, 
except  the  limb-bones,  which  were  dis- 
tributed among  the  inferior  chiefs.  The 
hair  of  Captain  Cook  was  in  the  posses- 
sion of  Kamehameha. 

After  dark,  provisions  were  sent  to 
the  ships,  with  which  were  two  large 
presents  from  the  much  injured  but  for- 
giving priest.  As  peace  was  now  con- 
sidered declared,  the  natives  ceased  all 
hostilities,  and  mingled  freely  with  the 
whites,  who  however  remained  closely 
upon  guard. 

All  of  the  bones  of  Captain  Cook 
that  could  then  be  recovered,  were 
brought  on  board  the  next  day,  neatly 
wrapped  in  fine  tapa,  ornamented  with 
black  and  white  feathers.  Presents  ac- 
companied them.  On  the  21st,  his 
gun,  shoes,  and  some  other  trifles,  were 
brought  by  one  of  the  high  chiefs,  who 
represented  Kalaniopuu  and  Kameha- 
meha, as  desirous  of  peace.  He  in- 
formed the  commanders  that  six  of  the 
chiefs,  some  of  whom  were  their  best 
friends,  had  been  killed.  A  difference 
of  opinion  prevailed  among  the  natives 
as  to  the  expediency  of  continuing  hos- 
tile measures ;  but  peace  was  finally 
agreed  upon. 

The  remains,  which  had  been  with 
so  much  difficulty  procured,  were  com- 
mitted to  the  deep  on  the  21st,  with 
military  honors.  During  this  scene,  the 
bay  was  deserted  by  the  natives;  but  the 
succeeding  day,  on  the  assurance  that 
all  ill-will  was  then  buried,  many  visited 
the  ships  and  others  sent  presents  of  eat- 
ables. In  the  evening  the  ships  sailed. 

On  the  27th,  they  touched  at  Oahu, 
and  a  party  landed  on  the  northwest 
side ;  but  meeting  only  a  few  inhabitants 
they  sailed  immediately  for  Kauai,  and 


64 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


came  to  anchor,  March  1st,  off  Waimea, 
in  their  old  station. 

Here  their  welcome  was  by  no  means 
cordial.  The  disease  which  they  had 
introduced  had  occasioned  many  deaths 
and  much  suffering.  The  island  pre- 
sented the  usual  spectacle  of  savage  con- 
tention and  warfare.  The  goats  which 
had  been  left  by  Cook  as  a  gift,  which 
might  eventually  have  proved  service- 
able to  the  inhabitants,  had  increased  to 
six,  but  had  become  a  source  of  conten- 
tion between  Keawe  and  Kaneonea. 
Both  parties  maintained  their  claims  by 
force,  and  a  battle  had  been  fought,  in 
which  Kaneonea  was  worsted.  A  mis- 
fortune among  barbarians  is  more  likely 
to  beget  enemies  than  friends,  as  the  un- 
fortunate chief  soon  experienced.  The 
goats  were  destroyed,  but  not  with  them 
the  disagreement,  of  which  they  had 
proved  the  innocent  cause.  Keawe  hav- 
ing allied  himself  to  another  powerful 
chief,  aspired  to  the  sole  sovereignty. 

Cook  being  dead,  the  ships  experi- 
enced such  trouble  as  has  commonly 
been  received  from  the  South  Sea  island- 
ers, when  no  superstitious  restraint,  or 
knowledge  of  the  superior  power  of  the 
white  race,  existed.  This  was  greatly 
aggravated  by  the  absence  of  the  princi- 
pal chiefs.  The  men  employed  in  water- 
ing were  annoyed  by  cro\vds  of  natives, 
who  pressed  rudely  upon  them,  and  final- 
ly endeavored  to  wrench  the  muskets  of 
the  soldiers  from  their  hands.  They 
would  not  suffer  the  watering  to  pro- 
ceed, unless  a  great  price  was  given ; 
demanding  a  hatchet  for  every  cask  of 
water.  Neither  had  they  forgotten  their 
old  trade.  While  some  amused  them- 
selves by  tripping  up  the  sailors,  pulling 
them  backward  by  their  clothes,  and 
like  vexatious  tricks,  others  stole  their 
hats,  buckets,  and  one  seized  Captain 
King's  cutlass  from  his  side  and  made 
his  escape.  Gaining  courage  by  the  im- 
punity with  which  they  had  thus  far 
proceeded,  they  made  more  daring  de- 
monstrations. The  casks,  however,  were 
filled,  placed  in  the  pinnace,  and  all  em- 
barked, excepting  King  and  two  others, 
when  a  shower  of  stones  compelled  them 
hastily  to  follow.  The  marines  in  the 
boat  then  fired  two  muskets,  which 
wounded  one  man  severely.  This  en- 


raged the  natives,  and  they  prepared  for 
a  fresh  attack;  but  the  authority  of  some 
chiefs  who  made  their  appearance,  drove 
them  back. 

No  further  disturbance  was  experi- 
enced. The  chiefs  of  Keawe's  party 
paid  Captain  Clerke  a  visit,  and  made 
him  several  curious  and  valuable  pres- 
ents, among  which  were  fish  hooks, 
made  from  the  bones  of  Kalaniopuu's 
father,  who  had  been  killed  in  an  unsuc- 
cessful attempt  to  subdue  Oahu.  A 
dagger  made  from  iron  taken  from  a 
timber  that  had  recently  floated  ashore, 
was  also  brought. 

On  the  8th  of  March,  the  ships  stood 
over  to  Niihau,  where  they  remained 
but  four  days. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

1779— Unfavorable  opinion  entertained  of  the  islanders 
in  consequence  of  the  death  of  Cook — Death  of  Kala- 
niopuu — War  of  succession — Victories  of  Kamehameha 
— Kamehameha  conquers  Maui,  Lanai  and  Molukai— 
Arrival  of  Captains  Portlock  and  Dixon — Trade  opened 
— Meare's  visit— Trade— La  Perouse  visits  Maui,  1786 
— Maui,  Lanai  and  Molokai  rebel — Arrival  of  the  Ele- 
anora — Capture  of  boat  and  murder  of  a  s  dlor — Met- 
cali's  bloody  revenge — Fair  American  captured — John 
Young  and  Isaac  Davis  made  prisoners — Difficulties 
between  traders  and  the  islanders — Kameharneha's  in- 
dignation at  the  capture  of  the  Fair  American — Treat- 
ment of  prisoners — Kaiana's  ambitious  views — At- 
tempts on  vessels— Vancouver's  arrival — First  notice 
of  Kanmualii— Doedalus  arrives  at  Oahu — Massacre  of 
Lieutenant  Hergest  and  Mr.  Gooch — Avarice  of  chiefs 
— Intercourse  with  Vancouver — Kaahumanu— Princely 
hospitality — Jealousy  of  other  chiefs — Cattle  first  in- 
troduced at  Hawaii— Discipline  of  ships— Orders  of 
the  king— Widow  of  Kalaniopuu — Sham  battle — Pres- 
ent to  King  George  III. — Transactions  at  Maui — Mur- 
derers executed  at  Oahu — Festival  of  Makahiki  — 
Benevolent  efforts  of  Vancouver — Theatrical  enter- 
tainments— Cession  of  Hawaii — Departure  of  Vancou- 
ver—1794. 

THE  news  of  the  disastrous  events  re- 
corded in  the  last  chapter,  produced  an 
unfavorable  impression  in  Europe  and 
America,  of  the  character  of  the  island- 
ers. Without  fully  comprehending  the 
causes,  they  were  judged  to  be  a  cruel 
race,  and  disposed  to  commit  atrocities 
upon  ships.  For  a  number  of  years 
none  ventured  to  touch  at  their  shores. 
The  aged  Kalaniopuu  died  at  Kau,  Ha- 
waii, in  April,  1782,  after  a  reign  of 
thirty  years,  and  bequeathed  his  domin- 
ions to  Kiwalao,  his  son,  jointly  with 
Kamehameha,  who  was  to  be  subordi- 
nate to  him.  Kamehameha  was  the  re- 
puted nephew  of  Kalaniopuu,  by  his 
brother  Keoua,  but  Kahekili,  king  of 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN 


65 


Maui,  claimed  his  paternity.  By  this 
new  arrangement,  Kau,  Puna  and  Hilo, 
the  most  fertile  districts,  fell  to  Kiwa- 
lao; and  Kona,  Koliala  and  Hamakua  to 
Kamehameha.  No  sooner  was  the  will 
made  known  than  intrigues  to  defeat  it 
were  set  in  motion.  In  July  following, 
after  the  season  of  mourning  had  ended, 
the  Hilo  chiefs  being  anxious  to  obtain 
the  district  of  Kona,  on  the  east  side  of 
Hawaii,  on  account  of  the  calmness  of 
the  bordering  sea,  which  made  it  a  bet- 
ter fishing-ground,  endeavored  to  excite 
their  new  ruler  to  wrest  it  from  Kame- 
hameha. Having  gained  him  over  to 
their  design,  it  was  determined  to  exe- 


cute it  under  the  guise  of  paying  fune- 
ral honors  to  his  deceased  father.  A 
number  of  warriors,  taking  the  corpse 
of  Kalaniopuu  with  them,  embarked  in 
a  war-canoe  for  Kona.  On  their  way, 
Keeaumoku,  a  tried  chieftain  of  Kame- 
hameha, met  them,  and  going  on  board, 
joined  in  the  wail  for  the  dead.  From 
the  appearance  of  the  party,  his  sus- 
picions were  aroused,  and  he  inquired 
where  it  was  their  intention  to  inter 
the  body.  They  replied,  at  Kailua,  the 
chief  town  of  Kona.  From  this  answer 
and  the  extraordinary  haste  they  mani- 
fested, he  suspected  they  designed  sur- 
prising that  place. 


HOUSE  OF  KEAWE — TOMB  OF  TUB  KINGS  OF  HAWAII,  AT  HONAUNAU. 


While  off  Honaunau,  the  place  of  sep- 
ulture of  the  ancient  kings  of  Hawaii, 
they  were  overtaken  by  a  violent  rain- 
squall,  which  obliged  them  to  land.  The 
body  was  there  deposited  in  the  ances- 
tral tomb  of  the  kings  of  Hawaii,  the 
house  of  Keawe,  from  whom  all  chiefs 
of  pretensions  to  high  nobility  endeavor 
to  trace  their  descent.  Keeaumoku  se- 
cretly left  the  party  and  hastened  to 
Kamehameha  to  inform  him  of  his  sus- 
picions. Kiwalao  and  his  followers  re- 
mained to  concert  further  measures,  as 
it  was  their  intention  to  conquer  and 
apportion  all  Hawaii  among  themselves. 
In  the  meantime  information  of  their  ar- 
rival and  plans  had  been  conveyed  to  Ka- 
mehameha, who  immediately  advanced 
to  the  camp  of  Kiwalao,  and  in  an  inter- 
view the  two  became  apparently  recon- 
9 


ciled.  Kiwalao  endeavored  to  satisfy 
the  rapacity  of  his  chiefs,  by  dividing 
his  own  territories  among  them,  but 
Keoua,  his  uncle,  either  not  receiving  a 
share  proportionate  to  his  desires,  or 
being  neglected  in  the  apportionment, 
became  enraged  and  marched  off  with 
his  retainers,  determined  on  war  and 
plunder.  Entering  the  territories  of  Ka- 
mehameha, he  committed  considerable 
devastation  by  cutting  down  cocoanut 
trees.  In  a  skirmish  several  were  killed 
on  each  side.  The  war  having  thus 
commenced,  Kiwalao,  unable  further  to 
resist  the  solicitations  of  his  followers, 
joined  Keoua,  with  all  his  forces,  and  a 
general  engagement  took  place  at  Keei 
between  the  two  rivals  for  Hawaii,  which 
was  continued  for  eight  days  with  no 
decided  advantage  to  either  party.  Ka- 


66 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


mehameha  being  next  in  rank  and  influ- 
ence to  Kiwaiao,  was  heir  to  the  entire 
island  upon  the  death  of  his  cousin; 
consequently,  the  struggle  was  obstinate 
and  bloody.  Keeaumoku,  the  chief  who 
had  discovered  the  designs  of  Kiwaiao 
to  Kamehameha,  was  seized  by  two  of 
the  warriors  of  the  former,  and  badly 
wounded ;  one  smiting  him  with  a 
spear,  and  the  other  with  a  dagger,  both 
exclaiming,  in  derision,  "  the  weapon 
strikes  the  yellow -back  crab."  The 
anxiety  of  his  enemies  to  secure  as  a 
trophy,  a  highly  valued  ornament  made 
of  a  whale's  tooth,  which  he  wore  about ! 
his  neck,  preserved  his  life.  Kameha- 
rneha  perceiving  the  danger  of  his  favo- 
rite warrior,  rallied  the  boldest  of  his 
troops  and  furiously  charged  the  enemy. 
In  the  melee,  Kiwaiao  was  knocked 
down  by  a  stone.  Keeaumoku,  enabled 
to  rise,  rushed  upon  the  fallen  king,  and 
with  a  shark's-teeth  sword  despatched 
him.  The  fate  of  their  leader  so  dis- 
pirited his  followers,  that  they  were  en- 
tirely routed.  Some  fled  to  the  place  of 
refuge  at  Honaunau,  and  others  to  the 
mountains,  or  sought  safety  by  flight  in 
canoes.  Kamehameha  was  thus  left 
master  of  the  field,  and  lord  of  Hawaii. 

Further  opposition  awaited  him.    Ke- 
oua    and    Keawemauhili,  the    principal 
instigators  of  the  war,  had  fled  to  the 
mountains.     The  former  obtained  pos- 
session of  Kau,  and  the  latter  the  fine 
districts  of  Hilo  and  Puna.     Three  dis- 
tricts   only   sided   with     Kamehameha. 
The    rebel   chiefs,   however,   were    dis- 
turbed in  their  own  domains,  by  commo-  j 
tions   excited   by   dissatisfied    subjects ; 
one  of  whom  being  unsuccessful,  went ! 
over,  with  all  his  retainers,  to  Kameha-  j 
meha,  and  by  his  persuasions  induced 
him  to  renew  the  war.    An  engagement,  i 
which,  from  the  obstinacy  with  which  it  j 
was  fought,  received  the  name  of  Kaua- 
awa — bitter   contest — took   place    on    a  ! 
mountain  in  Kau.     Neither  party  were 
able  to  claim  the  victory.    Kamehameha  j 
actively  followed   up   the    contest,  and  i 
marched  upon  Hilo,  where  in  a  skirmish  j 
he  received  a  blow  on  his-  forehead  from  | 
a   paddle,  which  well  nigh  terminated  j 
his  career. 

Kahekili,  who  had  made  himself  mas- 1 
t^r  of  Molokai,  Lanai.  Oahu  and  Maui,  !' 


arid  was  allied  to  Kaeo,  sovereign  oi 
Kauai,  in  revenge  for  a  fancied  affront, 
sent  succor  to  the  enemies  of  Kameha- 
meha; who,  in  retaliation,  made  a  de- 
scent upon  Maui,  about  the  year  1790, 
while  Kahekili  was  at  Oahu.  His  son, 
a  youth,  encountered  the  invader  at 
Wailuku,  and  was  totally  defeated.  In 
this  battle  Kamehameha  displayed  much 
skill.  His  active  mind  turned  every 
mistake  of  his  enemy  to  his  own  advan- 
tage, and  seized  upon  the  most  favorable 
moments  for  a  charge  or  retreat.  The 
prodigious  strength  for  which  he  was 
remarkable,  joined  with  great  personal 
courage,  which  had  already  established 
for  him  a  reputation  for  prowess  through- 
out the  group,  availed  his  troops  much. 
When  his  bodily  exertions  were  not 
needed,  he  remained  quiet,  issuing  his 
orders  with  coolness  and  sagacity ;  if 
the  line  of  battle  wavered,  he  rushed  to 
the  thickest  of  the  fight,  encouraging  his 
men  with  his  deep-toned  voice.  Both 
parties  fought  with  bravery;  the  engage- 
ment being  in  a  narrow  defile  there  was 
little  room  for  flight.  The  carnage  was 
dreadful ;  many  were  killed  by  being 
hustled  off  precipices ;  the  waters  of  lao, 
a  small  stream,  were  damned  by  the 
bodies  of  the  routed  foe,  and  the  engage- 
ment was  ever  after  known  as  the  Kepa- 
niwai  (stopping  the  water.)  Kalaniku- 
pule,  the  prince, made  his  escape  to  Oahu. 
While  the  war  was  thus  prosecuted 
on  Maui,  Keoua  quarreled  with  his 
friend,  the  ruler  of  Hilo,  and  slew  him. 
Infatuated  by  his  growing  power,  he 
again  ravaged  Kamehameha's  provinces, 
and  was  opposed  by  Kaiana,  one  of  his 
generals,  a  distinguished  warrior  of 
Kauai,  who  had  been  taken  from  that 
island  by  Captain  Meares,  in  an  English 
vessel,  in  17S7,  and  carried  to  Canton, 
where  he  attracted  much  attention  by 
his  shrewdness,  elegance  of  form  .and 
demeanor.  He  was  six  feet  five  inches 
high,  well  proportioned,  and  of  a  hand- 
some countenance.  The  following  year 
he  returned  in  the  Iphigenia,  Captain 
Douglass,  and  not  daring  to  land  on 
Kauai,  where,  since  his  departure,  his 
brother,  influenced  by  a  priest,  had  be- 
come inimical  to  him,  he  proceeded  to 
Hawaii,  and  at  the  request  of  Kameha- 
meha, settled  there.  This  was  in  Janu- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLAXDS. 


67 


ary,  17S9.  His  active  mind  and  warlike 
disposition,  with  the  store  of  European 
articles,  including  fire-arms  and  ammu- 
nition, which  he  possessed,  made  him  a 
valuable  acquisition.  The  more  firmly 
to  attach  him  to  his  interests,  Kameha- 
meha  conferred  upon  him  high  rank  and 
extensive  possessions. 

Before  tracing  the  conquests  of  Ka- 
mehameha  further,  it  is  necessary  to 
record  the  arrival  of  the  first  ships  since 
the  demise  of  Cook.  They  reached  Ke- 
nlakeakua  Bay  before  the  king  left  on 
his  Maui  expedition.  By  the  natives 
they  were  called  o  Lo,  and  were  noted 
by  them  for  bringing  the  first  beads.* 
They  were  the  King  George  and  Queen 
Charlotte,  trading  vessels  from  London, 
commanded  by  Captains  Portlock  and 
Dixon  ;  the  former  of  whom  had  made 
the  last  voyage  with  Captain  Cook.  On 
the  25th  of  May,  1786,  they  made  Ha- 
waii, and  were  soon  surrounded  by 
canoes,  bringing  off  hogs  and  fruit, 
which  were  gladly  exchanged  for  bits 
of  iron.  The  next  day  they  came  to 
anchor,  and  were  visited  by  a  great 
number  of  natives,  whose  bearing  was 
insolent  and  troublesome.  No  chief  ap- 
peared to  keep  them  in  order,  and  the 
captains  were  obliged  to  drive  them  from 
the  vessels.  The  character  which  the 
bay  bore  made  them  very  cautious,  and 
on  the  27th,  their  fears  had  so  far  in- 
creased, that  after  firing  several  guns 
to  frighten  away  the  natives,  they  un- 
moored and  made  sail.  Standing  along 
the  coast,  they  continued  to  traffic  for 
swine  and  water ;  nails  and  buttons 
being  given  in  exchange  for  calabashes 
of  the  latter. 

June  1st,  they  anchored  off  the  east 
end  of  Oahu,  and  supplied  the  natives 
with  iron  and  trinkets.  The  islanders 
at  this  time  appear  to  have  been  so  well 
acquainted  with  the  whites,  as  to  mani- 
fest only  a  natural  curiosity  at  what  was 
novel.  A  party  from  the  ships  discov- 
ered Waikiki  Bay,  which,  from  not 
being  exposed  to  the  violence  of  the 
trade  winds,  soon  became  the  favorite 
anchoring  ground.  Leaving  Oahu,  they 
again  anchored  at  Waimea  Bay,  Kauai, 
where  they  remained  until  the  13th. 


*  Voyage  Round  the  World,  by  N.  Portlock,  Quarto, 
London,  1789. 


No  difficulty  was  experienced  on 
either  island ;  the  natives  had  acquired 
a  fondness  for  foreign  articles,  for  which 
they  gladly  exchanged  their  own  manu- 
factures, with  a  fairness  which  proves 
that  they  had  begun  to  comprehend  the 
old,  though  to  them,  new  adage,  "  hon- 
esty is  the  best  policy." 

In  the  autumn,  the  same  ships  re- 
turned, and  visited  Hawaii  and  Maui, 
oflf  which  island  a  canoe  with  four  men, 
completely  exhausted  with  fatigue,  were 
picked  up.  They  were  treated  with 
great  kindness,  loaded  with  gifts,  and 
sent  ashore  entirely  recovered,  to  tell  of 
the  humanity  of  the  white  men. 

The  ships  having  arrived  at  Oahu, 
anchored  in  their  former  situation.  Ka- 
hekili,  the  king,  who  was  then  a  stout, 
well-made  man  of  fifty  years  of  age, 
went  on  board,  and  made  inquiries  in 
regard  to  his  rival  of  Hawaii.  While 
they  lay  there  he  was  hospitable  and  at- 
tentive, but  an  old  priest,  who  came 
frequently  on  board,  informed  Captain 
Portlock  that  there  was  a  plot  brewing 
to  cut  off  both  vessels.  As  no  other  evi- 
dence of  such  a  design  transpired,  it 
was  either  a  false  report,  or  effectually 
checked  by  the  vigilance  constantly  dis- 
played by  their  crews,  and  dread  of  fire- 
arms ;  the  effect  of  which  the  king,  at 
his  request,  had  been  shown.  In  De- 
cember they  visited  Kauai,  and  there 
met  with  Kaiana,  brother  to  Kaeo,  the 
chief  ruler.  Both  showed  them  much 
kindness,  and  supplied  them  liberally 
with  provisions. 

In  October,  17S7,  Captain  Portlock 
again  touched  at  Kauai,  and  his  inter- 
course was  as  friendly  as  before.  In  his 
voyage  he  speaks  feelingly  of  the  op- 
pression of  the  chiefs  to  the  common 
people,  of  which  he  was  a  witness,  and 
endeavored  to  influence  the  former, 
though  without  success,  to  treat  their 
inferiors  more  humanely.  The  poorer 
classes  were  accustomed  to  come  in 
their  canoes  to  the  ships  from  long  dis- 
tances, bringing  their  little  store  of  pro- 
visions, which  they  would  barter  for 
iron  or  trinkets.  No  sooner,  however, 
had  they  got  them  into  their  posses- 
sion, than  they  would  be  rifled  by  some 
lazy  chief  who  had  been  waiting  the 
opportunity.  This  was  submitted  to 


68 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


without  repining,  as  it  was  the  custom 
of  the  country. 

In  August,  1787,*  Captain  Meares, 
in  the  Nootka,  arrived  at  the  islands, 
and  after  experiencing  a  pleasant  recep- 
tion, took  away  with  him  Kaiana,  who 
was  desirous  of  visiting  Britain.  Doug- 
lass, the  partner  of  Meares,  touched  at 
several  of  the  islands  in  the  ship  Iphige- 
nia,  many  times  in  that  and  the  two 
succeeding  years.  He  saluted  the  chiefs 
with  heavy  guns  ;  it  being  first  done 
with  seven  at  Kawaihae  Bay,  for  Kame- 
hameha,  who  was  highly  delighted  with 
the  novel  honor.  The  chief  endeavored 
to  procure  a  carpenter  from  him,  and 
was  successful  in  obtaining  a  swivel, 
some  smaller  fire-arms,  and  ammunition. 
In  July,  1789,  a  number  of  chiefs  at 
Hawaii,  conspired  to  seize  the  Iphige- 
nia,  but  the  friendly  Kaiana,  her  late 
passenger,  disclosed  the  plot.  Kame- 
hameha  asserted  his  innocence  of  the 
design,  though  in  the  risings  of  his  am- 
bition, before  his  plans  were  matured, 
and  his  policy  formed,  the  temptation  to 
make  himself  master  of  a  foreign  ship 
may  have  been  awakened.  But  no  such 
idea  was  ever  manifested;  his  sagacious 
mind  early  perceived  the  greater  advan- 
tages to  be  derived  from  securing  the 
friendship  of  his  commercial  visitors. 

About  this  period,  numerous  vessels, 
mostly  English  and   American,  visited 
the    islands,   and   commenced   a    trade, 
which  has  ever  since  been  actively  pur- 
sued.    Several,  among  which  was  the 
Lady  Washington,  were   fitted  out  by 
the  merchants  of  Boston  in  1785.    Their 
reception  varied  according  to  the  whims 
or  policy  of  the  contending  chiefs.    None 
were  much  molested,  though  some  were 
annoyed  by  theft  and  the  vexatious  tricks  | 
of  the  natives.     "Prices  varied  according  • 
to  the  caprice  of  the  rulers.     The  more 
important   articles  of  warfare   were   in 
demand,   and    abundantly   supplied   by  j 
thoughtless  traders,  who  in  some  cases  j 
found  them  turned  upon  themselves.    A  ! 
taste   for  ardent  spirits,  which  at  first  ! 
were  exceedingly  offensive,  was  gradu- 
ally excited  among  the  chiefs.     Interest  j 
annually  carried  more  vessels  to  their 
shores,  and  the  same  motive  impelled  a 
more  judicious  treatment  of  their  visitors. 

*  Meares'  Voyages,  2  volumes,  London,  1790. 


The  much  lamented  La  Perouse  came 
to  anchor,  with  his  exploring  frigates, 
at  the  leeward  side  of  Maui,  near  the 
present  town  of  Lahaina,  on  the  28th  of 
May,  1786,  a  few  days  only  after  Port- 
lock  and  Dixon  reached  Hawaii.  He 
speaks  favorably  of  the  kind  disposition 
of  the  inhabitants,  and  attributes  the 
shrewdness  manifested  in  their  petty 
barter,  to  former  communication  with 
Spaniards.  Frenchmen  were  the  first 
Europeans  of  modern  times  who  landed 
at  Maui.  Their  stay  was  limited  to  two 
days,  in  which  their  intercourse  with 
the  inhabitants  was  very  slight. 

While  the  true  state  and  value  of  this 
group  were  becoming  known  by  these 
visits,  and  an  interest  in  them  gradually 
awakened,  which  led  to  a  more  extend- 
ed intercourse,  the  wars  of  supremacy 
among  the  rival  chiefs  were  vigorously 
prosecuted.  The  possession  of  fire-arms 
made  their  contests  more  bloody,  but 
sooner  decided. 

During  the  contest  which  Kaiana  sus- 
tained against  Keoua,  while  his  chief 
was  on  Maui,  a  most  singular  interpo- 
sition of  natural  phenomena  enabled  him 
to  triumph  over  his  active  opponent.  At 
that  period,  it  had  a  great  effect  over 
the  minds  of  the  natives,  who,  from  that 
moment,  considered  their  goddess  Pele 
a  favorer  of  the  rising  fortunes  of  Ka- 
mehameha.  The  army  of  Keoua  had 
separated  into  three  divisions,  marching 
at  some  distance  from  each  other,  and 
were  descending  from  the  volcano  by 
three  distinct  paths,  not  greatly  apart, 
and  which  running  parallel  with  each 
other,  led  towards  the  habitable  portion 
of  Kau.  The  first  division  had  not  far 
advanced,  when  a  heavy  earthquake  and 
eruption  from  the  volcano  took  place. 
The  ground  shook  so  violently  as  to 
render  it  impossible  either  to  stand  still 
or  proceed,  and  they  reeled  to  and  fro 
like  drunken  men.  The  noise  accom- 
panying this  motion  was  awful,  far  ex- 
ceeding thunder  in  loudness,  while  the 
sky,  which  hitherto  had  been  unclouded, 
was  filled  with  a  shower  of  cinders  and 
ashes,  extending  for  many  miles  around. 
Owing  to  the  height  to  which  they  were 
first  cast  by  the  action  of  the  crater, 
they  cooled  in  their  descent  and  did  no 
injury,  though  a  strong  sulphurous  gas 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


was  evolved,  producing  a  suffocating 
sensation  in  the  party  exposed.  How- 
ever, they  escaped  with  the  loss  of  a 
few  of  their  number  scorched  to  death, 
and  as  soon  as  practicable  hurried  from 
the  spot. 

The  rear  party  experienced  a  similar 
motion,  accompanied  by  the  like  noises 
and  showers,  which  quickly  passed  over. 
They  then  hastened  to  rejoin  their  com- 
rades, but  were  met  by  an  appalling 
sight.  The  central  division  lay  stiffened 
in  death;  but  so  natural  were  the  pos- 
tures of  many,  that  they  did  not  dis- 
cover that  life  was  extinct  until  they 
had  closely  examined  them.  Some  were 
lying  in  apparent  slumber,  while  others 
were  sitting  upright,  with  their  wives 
and  children  firmly  locked  in  their  em- 
brace and  noses  pressed  together,  as  in 
the  act  of  salutation.  Out  of  four  hun- 
dred human  beings,  not  one  was  alive. 
A  hog,  belonging  to  one  of  the  families, 
alone  had  been  able  to  resist  the  effects 
of  the  sulphurous  vapor,  and  was  qui- 
etly rooting  about  them. 

Kamehameha  having  returned  from 
Molokai — 1791 — joined  forces  with  Kai- 
ana,  and  easily  routed  the  army  of 
Keoua,  dispirited  by  so  sad  an  event. 
Their  leader  was  driven  for  shelter  into 
the  further  part  of  Kau,  and  there  re- 
mained a  fugitive,  until,  having  become 
wearied  of  his  erratic  life,  he  determined 
to  surrender  himself  to  the  clemency  of 
the  conqueror.  Accordingly,  he  went 
to  the  seaside,  passing  with  the  permis- 
sion of  Kaiana  through  his  camp.  He 
received  much  attention  from  the  peo- 
ple some  of  whom  foreboded  his  fate, 
and  embarked  with  his  most  faithful  fol- 
lowers and  their  effects  for  Kawaihae 
Bay,  where  Kamehameha  was  encamp- 
ed. The  energy  and  ambition  of  Keoua 
having  been  prolific  sources  of  trouble 
to  him,  that  chief  determined  to  rid  him- 
self of  one  who  had  proved  so  valiant  a 
competitor,  and  whose  claims  to  the 
supreme  power,  from  his  relationship  to 
Kiwalao,  would  always  be  adverse  to 
his  own.  Accordingly,  secret  instruc- 
tions were  issued  to  Keeaumoku,  who 
having  enticed  Keoua  to  the  land,  as- 
sassinated him  as  he  stepped  from  his 
canoe.  Seven  of  his  friends  shared  the 
same  fate.  The  corpse  was  then  taken 


to  the  neighboring  heiau,  and  offered  in 
sacrifice.  This  occurred  in  1793.  Some 
say  that  he  was  treacherously  slain, 
against  the  wishes  of  Kamehamehn ;  but 
as  it  was  done  in  his  presence,  the  state- 
ment is  improbable.  The  whole  island 
of  Hawaii  was  now  his  by  conquest ; 
but  his  successes  here  were  counterbal- 
anced by  reverses  elsewhere.  Maui, 
Lanai  and  Molokai,  which  had  been  but 
partially  subdued,  threw  off  the  y,oke, 
and  again  acknowledged  Kahekili  as 
their  liege  lord. 

In  the  autumn  of  1789,  the  American 
snow  Eleanor,  commanded  by  one  Met- 
calf,*  arrived  at  Hawaii,  and  remained 
there  trading  during  most  of  the  suc- 
ceeding winter.  In  the  month  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1790,  she  anchored  at  Honuaula, 
Maui.  Two  of  the  chiefs  of  a  neighbor- 
ing place,  called  Oloalu,  having  heard 
of  her  arrival,  went  to  Honuaula,  and 
in  the  night  stole  her  boat,  which  was 
moored  under  her  stern.  A  watchman 
was  in  it,  but  had  fallen  asleep.  So 
adroit  were  they,  that  he  did  not  awake 
until  they  were  near  the  shore.  He 
then  attempted  to  give  the  alarm,  but 
was  unheard.  Before  he  could  cry  out 
again,  one  of  the  thieves  killed  him. 
The  boat  was  taken  ashore,  and  broken 
up  for  the  sake  of  the  iron,  which  was 
manufactured  into  awls  and  fish  hooks. 
The  chiefs  returned  to  their  own  village, 
and  for  a  while  Honuaula  was  made  to 
bear  the  brunt  of  a  revengeful  attack. 
One  man  was  killed,  and  two  made 
prisoners;  one  of  whom  being  from  Olo- 
alu, gave  information  of  the  real  crim- 
inals. Metcalf  weighed  anchor,  and  pro- 
ceeded thither. 

At  the  time  of  his  arrival  a  taboo  ex- 
isted, which  prevented  any  individual 
from  putting  off  in  a  canoe  under  pain 
of  being  burnt  to  death.  The  bones  of 
the  murdered  seaman,  and  the  remains 
of  the  boat,  for  which  a  reward  was  of- 
fered, had  been  delivered  up;  and  the 
natives  supposing  the  anger  of  the  cap- 
tain appeased  by  the  attack  he  had  al- 
ready made,  innocently  asked  for  the 
promised  reward.  This  he  said  they 
should  have.  As  soon  as  the  taboo  was 
annulled,  multitudes  of  people  from  all 


*  Vancouver's  Voyages,  21  volume :  London,  1798. 
Also,  Ka  Moolelo  Hawaii,  Lahaiualuna,  1838. 


70 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


parts  of  the  island  flocked  to  the  ship  to  ; 
trade.     They  were    all    ordered    to   lie  | 
with  their  canoes  on  the  starboard  side,  ! 
which  they  did,  not  perceiving  the  means  • 
preparing  for  their  destruction.     If  any  | 
lay   off  the    bows  or  stern,  they   were  j 
pelted  with  stones,  until  they  took  the 
prescribed  situation.     The  ports,  which 
had  been  closed,  were  then  hauled  up, 
and  the  battery,  charged  with  musket 
balls  and  nails,  and  depressed  to  bear 
into  the  thickest  of  the  fleet,  run  out  and 
fired  among  them.    Metcalf  stood  in  the 
gangway  to  witness   the   awful   effect, 
and    directed   the  volleys  of  musketry 
and  small  arms  which  were  poured  in  to 
complete  the  destruction.     One  hundred 
individuals  were  said  to  have  been  killed 
outright,   and   vast   numbers    wounded. 
The    natives    dragged  for   their   bodies 
with  fish  hooks,  and  collected  the  man- 
gled masses  upon  the  beach,  where,  to 
use  their  own  expression,  **  their  brains 
flowed  out  of  their  broken  skulls." 

After  this  horrible  massacre  of  inno- 
cent wretches,  Metcalf  sailed  for  Ha- 
waii, where,  owing  to  the  hostility  which 
*  existed  between  the  two  islands,  he  was 
well  received.  But  there  was  retribu- 
tion in  store  for  him. 

In  connection  with  the  Eleanor,  was 
a  small  schooner  of  twenty-six  tons — the 
Fair  American — a  tender,  manned  with 
only  five  seamen,  and  commanded  by 
MetcalPs  son,  a  lad  of  eighteen  years  of 
age.  This  vessel  arrived  off  Kavvaihae 
Bay  in  March,  but  did  not  fall  in  with 
her  mate,  which  was  a  little  farther  to 
the  westward.  Kameeimoku,  a  high 
chief,  who,  for  some  trifling  cause,  had 
received  a  flogging  from  the  elder  Met- 
calf, while  on  board  of  his  vessel,  had 
resolved  to  revenge  the  insult  upon  the 
first  whites  that  came  within  his  reach. 
The  smallness  of  the  schooner,  and  the 
inexperience  of  her  commander,  afforded 
too  favorable  an  opportunity  to  be  over- 
looked. Without  the  powerful  motive 
which  actuated  his  mind,  she  would 
have  proved  an  almost  irresistible  tempt- 
ation to  the  cupidity  of  savages,  when 
away  from  her  consort.  Accordingly, 
with  a  number  of  his  people,  he  boarded 
her,  and  carried  many  presents.  While 
the  attention  of  the  youth  and  crew 
were  occupied  in  receiving  them,  and  in 


hearing  news  of  his  father,  the  savages 
pressed  on  board.     Suddenly,  the  chief 
seized   young  Metcalf  and  threw  him 
overboard,    where    he    soon    perished. 
|  The  rest  were  massacred,  except  Isaac 
j  Davis,  whose  life  was  spared  by  one  of 
I  the  party,  who  bound  up  his  wounds. 
|  He   was  then   taken  ashore,  where  he 
|  was  kindly  treated.     The  schooner  was 
stranded  and  plundered. 

John  Young,  boatswain  of  the  Elea- 
nor, had  gone  ashore  on  the  17th,  but  to 
his  surprise,  upon  attempting  to  leave, 
was  forbidden  by  Kamehameha,  and  in 
the  evening  learned  of  the  capture  of 
the  schooner.  The  snow  remained  two 
days  off  Kealakekua  Bay,  firing  guns 
for  Young  to  return.  This  the  king, 
after  he  heard  of  the  massacre,  would 
not  permit,  nor  would  he  allow  a  canoe 
to  go  alongside,  lest  Metcalf  should  re- 
venge himself,  as  at  Maui ;  consequently 
he  sailed  without  hearing  of  his  loss. 

While  a  general  warfare  raged  through 
the  group,  and  individual  chieftains 
sought  to  add  to  their  power  by  gain- 
ing possession  of  the  more  destructive 
weapons  of  the  whites,  it  is  to  be  sup- 
posed that  serious  misunderstandings 
would  often  arise.  From  the  known 
treachery  and  avarice  of  savages,  it  can- 
not be  doubted  that  the  provocations 
sometimes  originated  with  them.  Some 
of  the  foreign  commanders  were  men  of 
little  or  no  principle ;  the  discipline  pre- 
served on  board  of  their  vessels  cor- 
rupted their  own  crews,  and  excited  the 
cupidity  and  dislike  of  the  natives.  Dis- 
turbances arose  in  consequence,  and  the 
captains  seeking  justice,  and  oftener 
mere  retaliation,  for  real  or  fancied 
wrongs,  too  frequently,  without  due  in- 
quiry, vented  their  rage  in  deeds,  scarce- 
ly inferior  in  wanton  barbarity,  or  abuse 
of  power  and  confidence,  to  the  customs 
of  the  savages  themselves.  Men  there 
were  of  that  day,  and  the  race  is  not 
altogether  extinct,  whose  characters 
could  be  resolved  into  two  principles — 
lust  and  gain.  To  accomplish  their  de- 
sires, no  action  was  too  base  or  cruel. 
Such  may  be  properly  termed  pirates ; 
for  their  selfishness  spared  neither  friend 
nor  foe ;  the  useful  servant  nor  profita- 
ble ally;  all  were  equally  their  victims. 
Captain  William  Sturgis,  an  American 


HISTORY   OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


71 


ship-master,  and  good  authority  in  this 
matter,  having  traded  extensively  both 
with  the  Hawaiians  and  the  Indians  on 
the  Northwest  Coast  soon  after  this 
period,  says,  in  a  published  lecture,  that 
the  loss  of  life  and  disasters  which  have 
occurred  in  voyages  among  these  sav- 
ages, were  owing  chiefly  "  to  the  bad  faith 
and  deceitfulness  of  the  white  man." 

But  the  tales  of  the  natives  them- 
selves, of  injuries  done  them,  when  not 
well  authenticated,  are  to  be  received 
with  limitation.  In  the  few  years  ensu- 
ing between  Portlock's  visit  and  Ka- 
mehameha's  complete  ascendency,  some 
cases  occurred  where  commanders  of 
vessels  fired  upon  the  natives ;  or,  act- 
ing upon  the  exigencies  of  the  time, 
thoughtlessly  did  deeds  which  in  their 
cooler  moments  would  have  been  disap- 
proved. The  rapid  growth  of  trade,  and 
the  general  and  increasing  good  will 
that  prevailed,  is  sufficient  evidence  that 
the  islanders  appreciated  the  value  of 
foreign  commerce. 

The  two  prisoners,  Young  and  Davis, 
though  rude  and  ignorant  seamen,  in 
moral  education  and  religious  knowl- 
edge, were  far  in  advance  of  the  most 
enlightened  of  those  who  held  them  in 
bondage.  Kamehameha  found  in  them 
tried  and  faithful  servants,  who  more 
than  repaid  his  protection,  and  the  op- 
pressed serf  ever  had  reason  to  bless  the 
humane  influence  they  exerted  over  the 
mind  ot  their  arbitrary  master.  Equal 
consideration  is  due  them  from  their 
own  countrymen,  and  the  mariners  of 
other  nations,  who  traded  to  their  shores. 
They  both  rose  to  be  chiefs  of  conse- 
quence, possessing  to  the  last  the  confi- 
dence of  high  and  low,  and  their  history, 
particularly  that  of  Young,  will  be  found 
to  be  closely  interwoven  with  that  of 
their  royal  guardian.  There  were  other 
white  men  on  the  islands  at  this  time, 
runaways  from  ships,  but  chiefly  of  bad 
characters.  Their  influence,  however, 
was  greatly  modified  by  the  superior  ad- 
dress and  intelligence  of  these  prisoners, 
and  by  the  comparison  which  the  na- 
tives necessarily  drew  between  the  two, 
which  gave  them  their  first  definite  no- 
tions of  morality. 

Kamehameha  was  highly  indignant  at 
'the  outrage  committed  by  Kameeimoku, 


but  his  authority  was  not  sufficiently 
established  to  authorize  him  to  punish 
this  violation  of  his  policy.  He  rebuked 
him  severely,  and  took  possession  of  the 
schooner,  which  he  caused  to  be  hauled 
up  and  carefully  preserved,  to  be  return- 
ed to  her  owner,  should  he  re-appear. 
Isaac  Davis  was  immediately  provided 
for,  and  treated  with  a  degree  of  atten- 
tion, which  fully  proved  the  sincerity 
of  his  sentiments.  While  reprimand- 
ing Kameeimoku,  he  is  said  to  have 
shed  tears. 

The  two  seamen  were  immediately 
taken  into  the  confidence  of  their  patron, 
and  both  from  him  and  other  high  chiefs, 
received  valuable  presents  of  estates  on 
the  sea-side.  They  made  themselves  so 
beloved,  that  popular  opinion  would  not 
have  permitted  their  departure  had  the 
king  been  inclined  to  let  them  go.  They 
were  carefully  guarded  whenever  a  ves- 
sel appeared  in  sight,  and  never  suffered 
to  go  afloat;  and  if  any  one  had  been 
detected  in  carrying  any  correspondence 
for  them  on  board  a  vessel,  he  would 
have  been  put  to  death ;  one  was  held 
responsible  for  the  other,  and  their  mu- 
tual fidelity  deserves  high  praise.  They 
made  a  joint  but  vain  attempt  to  escape 
to  Captain  Colnett's  ship,  and  had  it  not 
been  for  the  active  exertions  of  Kame- 
hameha, who  vigorously  defended  them, 
their  lives  would  have  been  forfeited. 
After  this,  they  became  more  contented 
in  their  new  relations.  Kaiana,  who 
had  lately  become  ambitious  and  turbu- 
lent, and  had  lost  all  sense  of  gratitude 
for  the  favors  he  had  received  from  the 
whites,  was  their  enemy,  and  conspired 
to  take  their  lives ;  but  the  friendship 
of  the  other  chiefs  rendered  the  plot 
abortive.  The  attentions  which  he  had 
received  abroad,  had  given  him  a  great 
opinion  of  his  own.  consequence.  Pos- 
sessing a  stock  of  fire-arms  and  ammu- 
nition, he  was  desirous  of  seizing  upon 
any  traders  that  might  come  within  his 
reach.  Had  Kamehameha  coincided 
with  his  views,  trade  would  have  been 
ruined,  and  the  Hawaiians  would  have 
acquired  the  character  of  pirates.  But 
his  plans  were  constantly  overruled  by 
the  greater  influence  of  his  superior  and 
his  counselors.  In  one  instance,  it  was 
nearly  decided  to  attempt  the  capture  of 


72 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


the  Spanish  sloop  Princess  Royal;  the  ]  portance,  and  misrepresent  that  of  the 
chief  argument  used  for  its  legality  was  I  king,  with  whom  he  stated  that  he 
that  she  had  been  captured  from  the  equally  shared  the  government.  On  his 
English;  consequently  there  could  be  I  departure  he  was  saluted  with  four  guns, 


no  harm  in  their  taking  her  from  the 
Spaniards.  A  sophism  very  agreeable 
to  their  covetous  dispositions,  and  which 
at  first  met  with  little  opposition.  The 
pacific  policy  carried  the  point,  however, 
even  against  so  cogent  a  reason. 

Before  Captain  Metcalf  sailed  for 
Maui  in  1789,  Kaiana  nearly  accom- 
plished the  capture  of  the  Eleanor.  It 
was  proposed  to  the  king  by  his  party, 
to  seize  the  snow,  and  put  to  death  all 


but  was  chagrined  at  not  being  able  to 
add  to  his  stock  of  foreign  weapons. 
In  the  evening  a  canoe  came  alongside 
with  a  young  native,  who  spoke  Eng- 
lish tolerably  well.  He  had  been  to  the 
United  States  with  Captain  Ingraham, 
of  Boston,  and  had  recently  returned. 
As  Vancouver  sailed  slowly  along  the 
coast  he  was  visited  by  several  chiefs,  to 
whom  he  gave  garden  seeds  and  other 
productions  likely  to  become  serviceable. 


of  her  crew,  except  a  few  who  should  |      On  the  7th  of  March,  he  anchored  at 
be  reserved  to  navigate  the  vessel.     By    Waikiki  Bay,  Oahu,  and  was  visited  by 
powerful  an  addition  to  his  navy,  the    many  of  the  natives.     The  knowledge 


conquest  of  the  other  islands  would  be 
made  sure.  The  plan  was  to  seize  the 
opportunity  when  the  crew  laid  aloft  to 


of  the  character  of  the  vessels  having 
spread  abroad,  those  who  went  ashore 
were  treated  with  a  coolness  which  ar- 


loose  the  sails;  those  on  deck  were  to   gued  great  indifference  to  visitors  who 


be  murdered,  and  the  remainder  kept  in 
the  rigging,  until  possession  of  the  ves- 
sel had  been  secured.  The  project, 
though  so  much  in  accordance  with  his 
ambition,  was  rejected  with  indignation. 
Notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  their 
sovereign,  the  chiefs  determined  upon 
the  attempt,  and  went  on  board  for  that 
purpose.  News  of  their  assembling  hav- 
ing been  conveyed  to  Kamehameha,  he 
hurried  off,  and  ordered  them  out  of  the 
vessel.  Fearing  that  he  would  disclose 
the  plot  to  Captain  Metcalf,  they  obeyed, 
and  the  ship  sailed  without  the  divulge- 
ment  of  the  design.  The  safety  of  many 
vessels,  and  the  lives  of  their  crews, 
about  this  period,  were  owing  to  the  ac- 
tive interference  of  Kamehameha,  and 
intercourse  was  continued  in  ignorance 
of  the  dangers  to  which  they  had  been 
exposed. 

Vancouver,  after  Cook,  the  most  cele- 
brated of  modern  English  voyagers,  ar- 
rived at  Kealakeakua  Bay  March  3d, 
1792.  As  his  visits  exercised  so  power- 
ful and  lasting  an  influence  upon  the 
islanders,  it  will  be  necessary  to  enter 
into  their  details.  He  had  with  him  two 
surveying  vessels,  the  Discovery  and 
Chatham.  Kaiana  carne  on  board,  and 
from  the  favorable  opinions  expressed  of 
him  in  Meares'  voyages,  was  received 
with  courtesy  and  attention.  One  of  his 
first  acts  was  to  exaggerate  his  own  im- 


came  for  other  purposes  than  trade.  On 
the  9th  the  ships  came  to  anchor  at 
Waimea,  Kauai.  Their  reception  was 
neither  hearty  nor  friendly.  Gain  was 
the  all-impelling  motive  of  the  inhab- 
itants ;  and  as  it  was  not  to  be  acquired 
to  the  extent  of  their  desires  by  trade, 
they  strove  to  excite  the  sensual  desires 
of  the  crews,  by  a  display  of  gross  wan- 
tonness, which  tended  rather  to  disgust 
than  please. 

Kaumualii — the  eldest  son  of  Kaeo, 
who  was  then  at  Maui — a  boy  of  twelve 
years  of  age,  visited  the  ships,  and  from 
his  affability  and  cheerfulness  created  a 


favorable  impression.     The  features 


the 


young    prince    were    expressive 


vivacity  and  intelligence,  and  his  inqui- 
ries and  observations  were  considered  as 
uncommon  for  a  lad  of  his  years.  His 
conduct  was  indicative  of  a  desire  to 


please  and  to  acquire  information.  But 
before  either  he  or  his  guardian  would 
venture  on  board,  hostages  were  de- 
manded for  their  safe  return  ;  and  in 
all  their  transactions,  an  honesty  of  pur- 
pose manifested,  with  a  discreet  caution, 
which  showed  that  the  principles  of 
trade  had  become  well  understood.  A 
number  of  whites  resided  on  the  island, 
who  made  themselves  useful  to  both 
parties. 

The     depopulation    throughout     the 
group,  caused  by  the  constant  internal 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


dissensions  since  Vancouver's  first  visit 
in  1778,  struck  him  painfully.  The 
town  of  Waimea  had  been  reduced  two- 
thirds,  and  of  all  the  chiefs  then  living, 
with  whom  he  had  been  intimately  ac- 
quainted, Kamehameha  alone  survived. 

At  this  time  attention  was  first  drawn 
toward  sandal  wood,  as  an  article  of  ex- 
port. Two  men  had  been  left  from  a 
Boston  brig  by  Captain  Kendrick,  on 
Kauai,  to  contract  for  several  cargoes, 
and  also  to  gather  pearls;  but  it  was 
not  until  many  years  afterward  that  the 
former  was  made  an  important  branch 
of  trade. 

On  the  llth  of  May,  the  same  year, 
the  Doedalus,  an  English  national  store- 
ship,  appeared  on  the  north  side  of  Oahu. 
The  natives  unaccustomed  to  the  sight, 
greeted  her  appearance  with  many  excla- 
mations of  affright  and  surprise.  Some 
ran  inland,  and  reported  that  "  coral 
rocks  were  floating  thither ;  "  others  vo- 
ciferated, "prodigious,  prodigious."  The 
vessel  lay  off  Waimea,  while  a  party 
went  ashore  to  procure  water.  It  being 
brackish  near  the  sea-side,  they  were 
obliged  to  roll  the  casks  some  distance 
up  the  stream,  where  it  was  pure.  Hav- 
ing filled  them,  they  made  preparations 
to  return,  when  a  dispute  arose  between 
the  seamen  and  natives,  which  termi- 
nated in  the  death  of  a  Portuguese  sailor. 
Lieut.  Hergest,  the  commander  of  the 
shore  expedition,  with  Mr.  Gouch,  the 
astronomer,  unaware  of  the  difficulty, 
had  incautiously  wandered  from  the 
party,  and  were  surrounded  by  many  of 
the  islanders,  who,  hearing  of  the  affray, 
immediately  attacked  these  gentlemen. 
The  further  account  of  this  melancholy 
affair,  I  give  literally  from  the  native 
historian,  by  which  it  will  be  seen  that 
from  their  own  confession,  it  was  a  wan- 
ton murder. 

"  Kapaleiuka  cast  a  stone  against  the 
chin  of  one  of  the  foreigners,  which 
knocked  him  down.  When  the  natives 
on  the  other  bank  saw  that  one  had 
fallen,  they  came  to  join  in  the  fray. 
The  white  man  cried  out  with  the  pain 
inflicted,  on  which  the  natives  said — 
1  They  cry,  indeed — they  are  men  per- 
haps,— we  thought  them  g.ods,  their  eyes 
were  so  bright.'  One  remonstrated,  '  Be 
not  in  haste  to  kill  the  god  konoikaou- 
10 


alii, — for  great  Lono  having  been  slain 
at  Hawaii,  this  one  remained,  the  great 
and  powerful  Pekeku  this  — he  is  a  god.' 
This  remonstrance  was  vain.  The  com- 
pany in  the  boat  returned  and  obtained 
their  guns,  and  lay  upon  their  oars. 
Those  on  board  the  vessel  perceiving 
that  some  of  their  number  had  been  slain, 
worked  the  vessel  inland  and  fired  on 
shore.  The  natives  exclaimed,  '  What 
is  this  whizzing?'  One  replied,  '  Don't 
you  know  it  is  burning  sand — powder — 
a  deadly  thing ;  it  will  burn  perhaps 
this  day  and  destroy  our  land.  Perhaps 
we  shall  escape  inasmuch  as  we  have 
killed  the  two  gods ;  had  they  lived 
among  us,  we  had  all  been  dead  men  ! ' 
The  firing  continued  till  evening,  when 
the  vessel  took  her  departure." 

The  perpetrators  of  this  cruel  act  were 
a  lawless  band,  owing  allegiance  to  no 
particular  chief.  The  kings  of  the  sev- 
eral islands,  occupied  with  their  wars  ot 
conquest,  paid  little  attention  to  the  af- 
fairs of  the  distant  portions  of  their  king- 
doms, consequently  a  general  license 
prevailed ;  and  petty  squabbles,  robberies 
and  murders  were  of  frequent  occur- 
rence. 

Vancouver  returned  from  the  North- 
west Coast  of  America,  and  anchored  off 
Kawaihae,  Hawaii,  February  14,  1793. 
A  taboo  then  existed,  by  which  the  in- 
habitants were  restricted  from  trading 
with  any  vessels,  except  for  arms  and 
ammunition.  Through  his  firmness  in 
refusing  to  purchase  supplies  with  these 
articles,  the  taboo  was  remitted.  Reli- 
|  gious  taboos  were  now  of  frequent  oc- 
currence, lasting  for  periods  of  several 
days  each,  during  which,  as  in  the  holi- 
days of  the  Roman  Church,  no  business 
could  be  transacted.  However,  when 
the  inconvenience  attending  them  was 
great,  the  highest  chiefs  exercised  an 
authority  similar  to  the  Pope's,  and 
granted  dispensations  for  their  own  ben- 
efit and  that  of  their  favorites.  On  the 
19th,  with  the  assistance  of  Kalaimoku, 
one  of  Kamehameha's  chief  counselors, 
he  landed  a  bull  and  cow,  which  were 
all  that  remained  of  several  cattle,  which 
he  had  brought  from  California,  with 
the  benevolent  design  of  introducing  the 
breed  of  these  valuable  animals.  The 
cow  died  soon  after  landing.  The  op- 


74 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


position  which  Kalaimoku  made  to  aid- 
ing him  in  the  landing,  though  he  well 
knew  they  were  a  gift  which  would 
largely  benefit  the  islanders,  forcibly 
illustrates  the  avaricious  spirit  which 
pervaded  all  classes,  and  to  which  Ka- 
mehameha  alone  was  superior.  He  ob- 
jected to  granting  the  use  of  his  canoe, 
which  was  large  and  commodious,  until 
a  sufficient  bribe  was  offered  him  ;  and 
this  was  subsequent  to  receiving  pres- 
ents suitable  to  his  rank. 

So  greatly  had  trade  increased,  and 
the  desire  of  the  useful  superseded  the 
passion  for  ornaments,  that  trinkets  no 
longer  were  of  value,  unless  they  were 
of  a  novel  description.  Woolen  cloth, 
printed  cottons,  linen,  hardware,  and  the 
staple  articles  of  traffic,  were  in  great 
demand.  The  islanders  suffered  in  some 
instances  from  the  shameless  dishonesty 
of  the  civilized  trader,  wrho  deceived 
them  in  the  quantity  and  quality  of 
goods.  Muskets  were  sold,  which  burst 
upon  the  first  fire,  and  often  produced 
dangerous  wounds.  But  these  vile  prac- 
tices recoiled  upon  the  heads  of  the  of- 
fenders, for  the  natives  soon  learned  to 
appreciate  an  holiest  man,  and  to  distin- 
guish the  good  article  from  the  bad,  and 
were  not  long  in  becoming  as  keen  in 
their  mercantile  transactions,  as  the 
shrewdest  of  their  teachers.  Vancouver 
also  speaks  in  terms  of  just  reprobation 
of  some  of  their  visitors,  who  after  being 
supplied  with  provisions  by  the  chiefs, 
departed  without  making  any  return.* 

While  cruising  slowly  along  the  west- 
ern side  of  Hawaii,  Kamehameha  came 
off  to  the  Discovery,  bringing  Young 
with  him.  Vancouver  was  agreeably 
disappointed  in  the  change  which  a  few 
years  had  made  in  the  countenance  of 
this  celebrated  warrior.  The  savage 
look  which  Captain  King  ascribed  to 
him,  had  lost  much  of  its  expression  of 


*  The  traffic  of  the  islands,  at  this  periofl,  -was  eon- 
fined  mostly  to  the  purchasing  of  supplies,  for  which 
object  vessels  of  the  principal  maritime  nations  irre- 
quented  them,  but  particularly  those  of  the  United 
States,  engaged  in  the  fur  iracle  on  the  Northwest 
Coast  of  America,  and  the  Canton  business ;  of  which 
many  interesting  particulars  will  be  found  in  Green- 
how's  memoir  of  the  Oregon.  The  most  noted  of  these 
were  the  Hope,  Captain  Ingraham,  the  Eleanor,  and 
Hancock ;  of  the  English,  besides  those  already  men- 
tioned, the  Princess  Royal,  and  Argonaut,  under  the 
direction  ot  Captain  Colnett.  The  islanders  were  fre- 
quently employed  as  seamen,  and  for  other  purposes 
on  shipboard,  in  which  they  gave  general  satisfaction. 


stern  ferocity,  while  it  retained  its  natu- 
ral dignity  and  firmness.  His  carriage 
was  majestic,  and  every  action  bespoke 
a  mind  which,  under  any  circumstances, 
would  have  distinguished  its  possessor. 
His  eyes  were  dark  and  piercing;  in 
the  words  of  one  who  not  long  after  was 
well  acquainted  with  him,  he  seemed 
capable  of  penetrating  the  designs  and 
reading  the  thoughts  of  those  about  him  ; 
before  his  glance  the  most  courageous 
quailed.  His  general  deportment  was 
frank,  cheerful  and  generous.  In  form 
and  stature  a  herculean  savage;  in  abili- 
ties and  character,  a  man  that  a  more 
advanced  country  might  have  been  proud 
to  acknowledge  as  her  son. 

His  sagacious  mind  seized  upon  every 
opportunity  of  improvement  and  aggran- 
dizement. While  the  benevolent  coun- 
sels of  Vancouver  could  not  repress  the 
latter,  they  confirmed  him  in  his  peace- 
ful and  protecting  policy  toward  foreign- 
ers. His  bias,  both  from  intellect  and 
interest,  lay  toward  them,  and  no  other 
barbarian  was  more  feared  and  respected 
by  all  classes,  strangers  and  subjects, 
than  this  wonderful  man.  Cook's  nar- 
rative presented  him  as  a  wonderful 
savage,  ambitious,  brave  and  resolute  ; 
Vancouver's  intercourse  showed  him  in 
the  dawn  of  a  ripened  intellect,  as  pos- 
sessing all  the  latter  qualities,  yet  hu- 
mane and  hospitable.  His  character  will 
be  gradually  pictured  in  the  subsequent 
events  of  his  active  career ;  and  the 
reader  can  then  judge  if  this  description 
do  him  justice. 

Soon  after  his  arrival  on  board,  Kaa- 
humanu,  his  favorite  queen,  with  several 
of  her  relatives,  followed  him.  This  is 
the  first  notice  we  have  of  this  woman, 
who  afterwards  proved  herself  a  consort 
worthy  of  the  greatest  and  best  of  her 
nation.  She  was  then  but  sixteen,  beau- 
tiful and  pleasing.  The  ship  was  soon 
crowded  with  well-behaved  visitors  of 
high  rank,  among  whom  presents  were 
distributed,  which  gave  much  satisfac- 
tion. Kamehameha  received  a  scarlet 
coat,  trimmed  with  gold  lace,  in  which 
he  promenaded  the  deck  to  the  great 
admiration  of  his  subjects. 

February  22d,  Vancouver  anchored  at 
Kealakeakua  Bay.  Kamehameha  im- 
mediately put  off  in  great  state.  He  was 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


75 


dressed  in  a  printed  linen  gown,  given 
by  Cook  to  Kalaniopuu,  over  which  a 
magnificent  feather  cloak  was  thrown, 
which  trailed  upon  the  ground.  His 
head  was  surmounted  by  an  elegant  hel- 
met. Eleven  large  canoes,  arranged  so 
as  to  form  two  sides  of  an  obtuse  angle, 
formed  his  squadron.  The  largest,  in 
which  he  \vas,  had  eighteen  paddles  on 
each  side,  and  headed  the  procession. 
It  was  a  little  in  advance  of  the  others, 
which  followed  its  motions  with  the  ut- 
most precision,  being  guided  by  the 
orders  of  the  king,  who  regulated  the 
manoeuvres  with  great,  skill.  The  fleet 
paddled  around  the  vessel  in  a  slow  and 
solemn  manner.  The  ten  canoes  were 
then  ordered  to  form  in  a  line  under  the 
stern,  while  his  own  was  paddled  with 
the  utmost  exertions  of  the  crew,  to 
the  starboard  side.  When  abreast  of 
the  gangway,  notwithstanding  the  great 
speed  with  which  it  was  shooting  ahead, 
it  was  instantly  stopped  by  a  skillful 
back  dip  of  the  paddles. 

Kamehameha  then  ascended  the  side, 
and  taking  the  hand  of  Vancouver,  in- 
quired if  he  were  sincerely  a  friend,  and 
if  the  king  of  Great  Britain  were  ami- 
cably disposed.  These  questions  being 
satisfactorily  answered,  he  saluted  him 
by  touching  noses.  Four -helmets  of 
beautiful  fabrication,  were  then  present- 
ed, and  the  ten  canoes  ordered  along- 
side. Each  of  them  contained  nine  of 
the  largest  sized  swine,  which,  with  a 
prodigious  quantity  of  fruits  and  vege- 
tables, brought  by  a  fleet  of  smaller 
canoes,  were  deposited  on  the  decks  of 
both  vessels.  Although  the  quantity 
was  more  than  could  be  used,  nothing 
was  allowed  to  be  returned. 

Five  cows,  with  some  sheep,  were 
carried  ashore  as  a  present  to  the  king, 
who  personally  attended  to  their  care. 
In  addition  to  the  princely  gift  he  had 
already  sent,  he  had  prepared  a  large 
quantity  of  cloth,  mats,  and  other  ar- 
ticles of  their  manufacture,  which,  as 
there  was  not  room  on  board  for  them, 
he  ordered  to  be  stored  on  shore,  under 
the  charge  of  an  agent,  who  was  made 
responsible  for  their  final  delivery. 

The  presentation  of  all  the  large  cattle 
to  Kamehameha  created  some  jealousy 
among  the  other  chiefs.  Kaiana  coming 


on  board,  Kamehameha  received  him 
with  a  look  of  sullen  gloom  and  auster- 
ity, indicative  of  the  growing  dissatis- 
faction between  them.  Both  were  equal- 
ly ambitious.  Kaiana  sought  to  obtain 
his  ends  by  violence  and  bloodshed.  In 
his  former  patron  he  had  found  a  steady 
opponent,  and  neither  could  brook  an 
equal ;  though  for  the  present,  .policy 
prevented  an  open  rupture. 

Kaiana  was  civilly  received  and  a 
handsome  present  accepted,  though  it 
could  not  be  taken  on  board.  Keeau- 
moku,  the  slayer  of  Keoua,  who  was 
present,  \vas  angry  at  this,  as  his  pres- 
ent had  been  unconditionally  declined. 
The  king  who  had  sat  silent,  with  con- 
siderable warmth  declared  that  there 
was  no  occasion  to  accept  the  present  of 
any  other  chief  besides  himself,  as  he 
was  fully  capable  of  supplying  all  their 
wants.  Vancouver,  anxious  to  conciliate 
all,  determined  to  regulate  his  conduct 
to  these  jealous  chiefs  according  to  their 
rank  ;  treating  the  inferior  with  due  re- 
spect and  attention,  while  he  paid  prin- 
cipal court  to  Kamehameha,  as  one  who, 
if  he  did  not  then  possess  absolute  au- 
thority, would  soon  secure  it  from  his 
superior  force  and  abilities. 

As  it  w7as  necessary  to  erect  an  ob- 
servatory ashore,  and  in  the  intercourse 
which  would  necessarily  ensue  in  a  long 
visit,  there  would  be  temptations  to  pil- 
fer, and  difficulties  might  arise  from  lack 
of  discipline  on  one  side,  and  the  ag- 
gressions of  evil  disposed  natives  on  the 
other,  enemies  to  his  government,  or 
retainers  of  chiefs,  over  whom  he  had  no 
positive  control,  Kamehameha  desired 
that  certain  rules  should  be  strictly  ob- 
served. In  promulgating  them,  he  seems 
to  have  had  forcibly  in  his  mind,  the  sad 
results  of  the  unrestrained  license  of 
Cook's  crews,  and  the  want  of  prudence 
and  injudicious  harshness  of  their  com- 
mander. On  the  part  of  Vancouver,  he 
urged  that  the  strictest  discipline  should 
be  observed ;  that  no  individuals  should 
be  permitted  to  infringe  upon  their  sa- 
cred observances,  or  in  any  way  violate 
their  places  of  religion ;  that  none  should 
stray  about  the  country ;  and  none  but 
the  principal  chiefs  be  allowed  to  visit 
the  vessels.  In  the  day  time,  he  would 
frequently  come  on  board,  and  his  pres- 


76 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


ence  would  prevent  any  lawless  conduct. 
If  any  of  the  whites  desired  to  travel, 
he  would  be  responsible  for  their  safety,  ; 
and  would  supply  them  with  confiden-  j 
tial  attendants,  who  should  provide  for 
all  their  wants,  and  regulate  their  con- 
duct that  it  might  not   unintentionally 
offend.     Should  any  theft  or  irregular-  I 
ities   be  committed,  he  would   see  that  | 
the    offenders   were    severely  punished.  | 
Orders  were   issued  to  all  subjects  re- 1 
quiring  of  them  the  strictest  obedience  j 
to  all  the  rules  prescribing  their  inter- 
course with  the  whites.    Vancouver  with 
a  cordiality  that  reflects  credit  upon  his 
judgment,  heartily  co-operated  with  these 
reasonable  desires  ;  from  the  mutual  re- 
spect of  which  may  be  reckoned  the  in- 
crease of  good  will,  which  rendered  the 
visit  so  beneficial,  and  the  departure  so 
sad  to  both. 

Kamehameha  soon  had  occasion  to 
prove  his  sincerity,  by  restoring  some 
goods  stolen  by  women  who  had  been 
permitted  to  sleep  on  board. 

Kekupuohe,  one  of  the  widows  of  Ka- 
laniopuu,  visited  Vancouver.  It  had 
been  her  fortune  to  witness  in  the  wars 
that  followed  his  death,  the  extirpation 
of  almost  all  her  race.  She  was  then  in 
honorable  captivity,  supported  according 
to  her  rank  by  the  conquerors  of  her 
family.  He  had  once  saved  her  life 
from  the  fury  of  some  of  his  own  re- 
vengeful relations,  who  in  a  public  com- 
motion had  sought  her  destruction,  and 
that  of  all  her  adherents.* 


*She  died  at  Kailua,  in  February,  1836,  at  a  very  ad- 
vanced age,  being  upwards  of  ninety,  and  was  buried 
in  a  cave  at  Kealakeakua.    In  1828,  she  joined  the 
Protestant  church,  and,  notwithstanding  the  feeble 
condition  of  her  eyes,  learned  to  read.    To  her  death 
she  was  an  indefatigable  student  of  the  Bible.    She 
was  a  poetess,  even  in  the  decline  of  lii'e,  and  not  long 
before  her  death  composed  a  song,  of  which  the  fol- 
lovring  extract,-  translated  by  the  Rev.  H.  Bingham, 
will  give  an  idea  of  her  powers : 
"  Once  only  hath  that  appeared  which  ia  glorious, 
It  is  wonderful,  it  is  altogether  holy ; 
It  is  a  blooming  glory ;  its  nature  is  unwithering, 
Eare  is  its  stock,  most  singular,  unrivaled, 
One  only  true  vine.    It  is  the  Lord,"  &c. 
Another,  composed  in  1830,  entitled  "A  Mele  on  the 
Creation,"  exhibits  much  beauty,  force  and  simplicity 
of  diction. 

"  God  breathed  into  the  empty  space, 
And  widely  spread  his  power  forth, 
The  spirit  flying,  hovered  o'er ; 

"  His  power  grasped  the  movable,  it  was  fast, 
The  earth  became  embodied, 
The  islands  also  rose. 

"  God  made  this  wide  extended  heaven, 
He  made  the  heavens  long,  long  ago ; 
He  dwelt  alone,  Jehovah  by  himself, 
The  spirit  with  him. 


On  the  4th  of  March,  Kamehameha 
entertained  the  officers  of  the  ships  with 
a  sham  battle,  between  one  hundred  and 
fifty  of  the  best  of  his  warriors.  They 
were  divided  into  three  parties,  to  repre- 
sent the  armies  of  his  rivals,  Kahekili 
and  Kaeo,  and  his  own.  Their  spears 
were  blunted,  and  as  the  parties  ap- 
proached, taunts,  menaces  and  vaunting 
speeches  were  uttered  on  either  side  to 
excite  fury.  The  battle  commenced  by 
a  discharge  of  spears,  and  was  continued 
without  any  regard  to  order,  each  indi- 
vidual advancing  or  retreating  at  his 
will.  Some  of  the  most  expert  defied 
the  whole  body  of  their  adversaries, 
fending  with  the  spear  they  held  in  their 
left  hand,  those  thrown  at  them,  or 
catching  them  in  their  right  and  launch- 
ing them  back  upon  their  opponents.  In 
this  exercise,  none  excelled  the  king ; 
six  spears  were  hurled  at  him  at  once  ; 
three  he  caught,  two  were  parried,  and 
the  sixth  nimbly  avoided  by  a  trifling 
inclination  of  his  body. 

The  skirmish  was  succeeded  by  an 
engagement  of  a  more  military  charac- 
ter, in  which  the  chiefs  bore  a  conspicu- 
ous part.  Each  was  attended  by  a  body 
guard,  armed  with  long  sharp  lances  or 
with  barbed  javelins.  Their  ranks  were 
formed  into  corps  or  phalanxes.  Both 
parties  previous  to  the  fight  sat  upon 
the  ground  with  their  lances  pointed  at 
each  other,  while  their  leaders  argued 
with  much  energy  for  war  or  peace. 
Not  being  able  to  agree  upon  the  condi- 
tions of  the  latter,  both  parties  arose, 
closed  their  ranks,  and  in  serried  col- 
umns slowly  advanced.  Their  move- 
ments were  made  with  much  caution, 
each  guarding  with  the  greatest  circum- 
spection against  any  advantage  which 
the  other  might  seek ;  the  wings  were 
engaged  w.ith  slings  and  other  missiles, 
but  the  action  depended  upon  the  fate  of 
one  of  the  phalanxes.  The  ground  was 
firmly  disputed  and  the  mutual  lunges 
warded  with  great  dexterity.  Some  of 
Kahekili's  troops  fell ;  upon  which  the 
opposing  party  with  shouts  rushed  im- 
petuously forward,  and  in  the  charge 


1  He  fixed  the  sun  his  place, 
But  the  islands  moved,  moved  the  islands, 
With  sudden,  noiseless,  silent  speed ; 
We  see  not  his  skillful  work, 
God  is  the  great  support  that  holds  the  earth." 
Haw.  Spfct.,  vol.  2,  page  80. 


HISTOBT   OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


77 


broke  through  the  opposing  ranks  and 
gained  the  victory.  Those  who  were 
supposed  to  be  slain,  were  dragged  by 
the  heels  over  the  beach,  to  be  presented 
to  the  king ;  thence  to  the  heiau,  where 
they  underwent  a  feigned  sacrifice. 

Vancouver  strenuously  exerted  him- 
self to  bring  about  peace  between  the 
Hawaiians  and  the  inhabitants  of  the 
leeward  islands.  The  chiefs  of  the 
former  listened  deferentially  to  his  argu- 
ments, but  they  produced  but  little  real 
impression  upon  their  minds,  bent  upon 
conquest,  and  strengthened  in  their 
views  by  the  very  attentions  he  had 
paid  them.  In  return,  they  requested 
his  assistance  in  bringing  all  the  islands 
under  their  dominion,  which  was  the 
true  policy ;  for  one  effective  govern- 
ment established  over  the  group,  would 
effectually  stop  the  hostilities  which 
petty  and  independent  chieftains  ever 
wage  with  each  other. 

Kamehameha  made  another  valuable 
present  to  Vancouver  on  the  eve  of  his 
departure  for  the  leeward,  and  as  the 
most  valuable  relic  the  island  afforded, 
sent  his  own  war-cloak,  pierced  with 
spear-holes,  as  a  present  to  George  III., 
with  the  injunction,  that  as  it  had  been 
worn  by  no  other  person  but  himself,  it 
must  honor  no  other  shoulders  than 
those  of  His  Britannic  Majesty.  Van- 
couver presented  him  with  many  useful 
articles,  among  which  were  carpenters' 
and  agricultural  tools.  Other  chiefs 
also  received  abundant  evidence  of  his 
liberal  spirit.  Kamehameha  made  a 
final  attempt  to  procure  some  of  the 
coveted  fire-arms,  by  observing  that  his 
canoe,  which  had  been  fitted  by  the  sail- 
maker  with  a  full  suit  of  canvas  sails, 
would  look  better  if  she  had  a  few  swiv- 
els mounted.  But  the  magic  "taboo 
King  George,"  stopped  all  further  hints. 

On  the  8th  of  March,  the  vessels  left 
for  Maui,  and  anchored  in  Lahaina  roads 
on  the  12th.  Here  the  intercourse  was 
amicable,  and  in  an  interview  with  the 
aged  and  infirm  Kahekili  and  Kaeo,  his 
arguments  for  peace  produced  more  ef- 
fect. They  had  been  great  losers  in  the 
contest ;  their  dominions  were  almost  in 
a  state  of  anarchy,  and  Maui  had  been 
so  ravaged  that  it  was  necessary  to  bring 
food  from  Oahu  and  Kauai  for  the  sup- 


I  port  of  their  armies  of  observation,  which 
(  were  stationed  on  the  east,  to  repel  the 
1  anticipated     invasion.      Their    poverty 
prevented  them  from  making  the  usual 
presents ;  but  this  did  not  hinder  Van- 
couver from  treating  them  with  the  con- 
sideration due  their  station.     Kaeo  pro- 
duced a  lock  of  his  hair  which  he  had 
given  him  in  token  of  amity,  while  with 
I  Cook  at  Kauai.     He  was  then  a  fine 
!  looking  young  man,  but  the  use  of  awct, 
'  as  with  most  of  the  chiefs,  had  brought 
on  premature  decay. 

These  chiefs  satisfied  Vancouver  of 
their  innocence  in  regard  to  the  murders 
at  Oahu.  By  their  orders,  three  men 
had  already  been  executed ;  and  they 
were  disposed  to  do  all  that  lay  in  their 
power  to  bring  the  remainder  to  condign 
punishment.  Vancouver  manifested  a 
determination  to  chastise  the  guilty,  with 
a  proper  discrimination  of  the  innocent, 
which  effectually  convinced  the  natives 
that  such  deeds  could  not  be  done  with 
impunity;  that  if  the  whites  were  the 
aggressors,  they  must  suffer  the  conse- 
quences ;  and  that  impartial  justice 
should  be  dealt  to  all.  In  his  discourse 
with  the  leading  men,  he  endeavored  to 
convince  them  of  the  distinction  between 
the  whites,  governed  by  principles  of 
honesty  and  humanity,  and  those  reck- 
less traders  whose  pecuniary  interests 
were  pursued  regardless  of  the  cost  of 
blood  and  suffering  to  others.  The  dire 
evils  which  such  men  have  produced 
among  savage  tribes,  are  sufficient  to 
make  humanity  weep,  but  should  not 
blind  us  to  the  less  conspicuous,  but 
beneficial  influence  of  others.  Unfortu- 
nately, savage  nature  affords  too  fruitful 
a  soil  for  the  vices  and  diseases  of  civi- 
lization; grafted  upon  their  own,  were 
it  not  for  the  remedies  which  so  closely 
follow  in  their  train,  they  would  speed- 
ily depopulate  the  fairest  country  and 
convert  a  blooming  garden  into  a  dreary 
waste. 

Kalanikupule  ruled  over  Oahu  for  his 
father.  Upon  the  arrival  of  the  vessels, 
three  men  were  brought  on  board  by  his 
orders,  and  delivered  up  as  those  ac- 
tively engaged  in  the  death  of  Lieutenant 
Hergest,  Mr.  Gooch,  and  the  seaman, 
with  the  request  that  they  might  be  im- 
mediately executed.  All  possible  care 


73 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


was  evinced  to  ascertain  the  guilt  of  the 
prisoners ;  and  though  the  evidence  was 
not  so  complete  as  the  importance  of 
such  a  case  demanded,  yet  the  concur- 
rent testimony  of  the  natives  themselves, 
pointed  them  out  as  the  real  criminals. 
After  commenting  upon  the  enormity  of 
the  crime,  the  evidence  of  their  guilt, 
and  the  design  of  the  punishment,  they 
were  delivered  to  their  chiefs,  one  of 
whom,  in  the  presence  of  a  large  con- 
course, having  placed  them  in  a  double 
canoe,  a  short  distance  from  the  vessel, 
blew  out  their  brains  with  a  pistol. 
Their  sentence  was  executed  at  Wai- 
kiki,  on  the  22d  of  March.*  Some  doubt 
has  since  existed  as  to  these  men  being 
the  real  murderers  ;  and  it  has  been  as- 
serted that  they  were  sacrificed  by  their 
chiefs  to  appease  the  anger  of  Vancou- 
ver, and  that  another  man,  who  was 
really  guilty,  was  afterwards  shot  at 
Honolulu,  by  the  mate  of  a  vessel ;  the 
natives  viewing  the  act  with  indiffer- 
ence, esteeming  it  to  be  just  retaliation. 
Even  if  this  be  true,  Vancouver  must 
be  exonerated  from  acting  prematurely. 
The  evidence  against  them  was  strong; 
and  if  there  be  criminality  in  their  exe- 
cution, it  lies  on  the  heads  of  their  own 
countrymen,  and  shows  a  baseness  which 
few  would  be  willing  to  attribute  even 
to  savages. 

Vancouver  having  caused  this  salutary 
example  to  be  made,  next  proceeded  to 
Kauai.  When  midway  between  the  two 
islands,  they  fell  in  with  the  finest  canoe 
which  they  had  yet  seen.  It  was  sixty- 
one  and  a  half  feet  long,  with  a  propor- 
tionate depth  and  width,  and  finished  off 
in  a  most  workmanlike  manner.  It  was 
made  from  an  American  pine  log,  which 
had  drifted  ashore  in  a  perfectly  sound 
condition  on  Kauai,  where  it  had  re- 
mained unwrought  for  some  time;  the 
islanders  hoping  a  mate  of  equal  dimen- 
sions might  arrive,  in  which  case  they 
would  have  constructed  a  double  canoe, 
which  would  have  been  their  boast,  and 
the  terror  of  their  enemies.  Their  pa- 
tience becoming  exhausted,  they  made 
the  present  one,  which,  from  its  buoy- 
ancy, was  an  admirable  sea-boat,  and 
was  appropriated  to  carrying  despatches 
to  and  from  Kaeo,  while  he  remained  at 


Vancouver,  page  204,  vol.  2. 


the  windward.  Its  size  considerably  ex- 
ceeded the  largest  canoe  made  from  na- 
tive timber,  but  was  not  uncommon  for 
pine  trees  on  the  banks  of  the  Columbia 
river,  where,  according  to  Douglass,  they 
are  to  be  met  with  from  two  hundred 
and  fifty  to  three  hundred  feet  in  height. 

In  the  canoe  were  messengers  hasten- 
ing to  inform  their  absent  ruler  of  a  re- 
bellion that  had  arisen,  but  had  been 
fortunately  quelled,  with  the  loss  on  the 
part  of  the  conspirators,  of  two  chiefs 
and  five  men  killed,  and  several  \vound- 
ed.  As  trophies  of  their  success,  they 
had  the  leg-bones  of  the  chiefs,  with  a 
portion  of  the  flesh  adhering  to  them. 
A  number  of  smaller  canoes  followed, 
filled  with  prisoners,  whose  fate  was  to 
be  decided  by  Kaeo  in  person. 

Upon  his  arrival  off  Kauai,  the  young 
prince  Kaumualii  again  visited  him. 
Vancouver  remained  two  days,  during 
which  he  was  mostly  employed  in  se- 
curing comfortable  residences  for  two 
young  girls,  who  had  been  carried  from 
Niihau  in  an  English  vessel,  some  time 
before.  At  the  request  of  the  master, 
he  had  brought  them  from  the  American 
coast,  and  being  much  pleased  with  their 
beauty  and  amiability,  exerted  himself 
successfully  to  procure  a  favorable  re- 
ception for  them,  from  the  chiefs  of 
Kauai.  But  the  wealth  they  carried 
ashore,  he  feared  would  prove  too  great 
a  temptation  to  the  cupidity  of  their 
countrymen,  for  them  to  dwell  there 
long  in  safety.  On  the  30th  of  March, 
the  ships  sailed. 

They  returned  for  the  last  time  in 
January,  1794,  and  arrived  on  the  9th 
off  Hilo  Bay,  Hawaii,  which,  owing  to 
unfavorable  weather,  he  did  not  enter. 
Kamehameha,  who  was  then  residing 
there,  went  on  board.  At  the  urgent 
solicitations  of  Vancouver,  he  with  his 
train  remained  until  the  ships  arrived  at 
their  old  station  at  Kealakekua.  In 
doing  this,  he  trenched  upon  one  of  their 
religious  customs,  to  the  strict  observ- 
ance of  which  he  was  strongly  wedded. 
It  was  the  festival  of  the  New  Year,  and 
in  the  ceremonies  he  always  bore  a  con- 
spicuous part.  It  was  called  the  "Maka- 
hiki,"  the  name  of  the  first  day  in  their 
year,  and  lasted  a  long  while,  generally 
a  month,  being  a  sort  of  Saturnalia. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


79 


The  people  amused  themselves  with 
games,  dances,  theatrical  performances 
and  sham-fights,  ft  belonged  to  the 
highest  chief  to  open  the  festival.  Dress- 
ing himself  in  his  richest  armor,  he  em- 
barked in  a  canoe  at  early  light,  and 
coasted  the  shore  until  sunrise,  when  he 
was  obliged  to  land.  The  most  expert 
and  valiant  of  his  warriors  was  stationed 
to  receive  him.  As  soon  as  he  touched 
the  beach,  he  threw  three  heavy  spears 
at  him  in  quick  succession,  at  the  dis- 
tance of  thirty  paces.  There  was  no 
jesting  in  this.  Either  one,  if  not  avoid- 
ed, would  have  killed  him  outright,  or 


j  severely  wounded  him.     The  first  was 
to  be  caught  in  his  hand ;  with  this  he 
!  warded  off  the  others,  and  then  carried 
!  it  into  the  heiau,  with  the  point  down- 
i  wards.     His  entrance  was  the  signal  for 
i  the  assembled   multitude   to   commence 
I  their  sports.     During  their  continuance, 
!  all  punishments  were  remitted,  wars  dis- 
|  continued,  and  no  person  could  leave  the 
!  place  where  he  commenced  the  holidays, 
i  until  their  expiration.    Kamehameha,  in 
|  after  years,  was  advised  to  abolish  a  cus- 
tom so  dangerous  to  his  person,  but  he 
answered,  that  "  he  was  as  able  to  catch 
a  spear,  as  any  one  to  throw  it."* 


A   MELO-DRAMATIC   DANCE. 


On  this  occasion,  he  urged  that  it  was  [ 
necessary  for  him  to  obtain  the  sanction 
of  the  priests  to  his  absence,  but  the  ar- 
guments of  his  counselors,  joined  with 
those  of  the  commander,  who  stated  that 
there  would  be  no  opposition  to  his 
wishes,  and  the  more  cogent  reason  of 
further  confirming  his  importance  in  the 
eyes  of  the  other  chiefs,  by  this  oppor- 
tunity of  showing  his  intimacy  with 
Vancouver,  overcame  his  religious  scru- 
ples. During  the  passage,  numbers  of 
his  subjects  came  off  and  were  surprised 
to  find  him  on  board,  but  were  satisfied 
when  he  made  known  it  was  his  own 
choice.  The  same  boundless  liberality 
of  provisions  and  presents  was  shown  as 
before.  Kamehameha  considered  them 


as  his  guests,  and  everything  was  appor- 
tioned on  a  princely  scale.  The  strictest 
attention  to  the  customs  and  wants  of 
the  whites  was  required  of  all  his  sub- 
jects. Some  of  his  own  train  could  not 
overcome  their  propensity  to  pilfer,  and 
five  knives  were  missing  when  they  went 
on  shore ;  but  upon  representation  to  the 
king,  he,  much  chagrined  at  the  theft, 
compelled  their  restitution. 

An  instance  of  the  cruel  effects  of  the 
law  of  retaliation,  occurred  while  the 
ships  were  at  the  island.  In  a  spear  ex- 
ercise between  a  common  man  and  the 
son  of  a  chief,  the  former  had  the  mis- 
fortune to  wound  the  young  noble,  for 
which  he  was  seized,  his  eyes  scooped 


*Lisianky'8  Voyage,  p.  119:  London,  ISH. 


80 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


out,  and  at  the  expiration  of  two  days 
he  was  put  to  death. 

On  February  1st,  the  keel  of  the  first 
vessel  built  at  the  islands  was  laid.  She 
was  thirty-six  feet  long,  with  nine  feet 
and  a  half  beam,  five  feet  hold,  and  was 
named  the  Britannia.  The  carpenters 
of  the  ships  were  employed  upon  it,  in 
conjunction  with  one  Boid,  in  the  pay  of 
the  king,  and  the  services  rendered  by 
Vancouver  in  building  and  rigging  her, 
were  intended  as  some  return  for  the 
hospitality  so  abundantly  received  from 
the  kingly  savage.  Nor  were  Vancou- 
ver's good  offices  confined  to  this  act. 
Through  the  influence  of  inimical  chiefs, 
Kamehameha  had  been  estranged  and 
separated  from  his  favorite  Kaahumanu 
for  a  long  time,  on  account  of  an  alleged 
intimacy  with  Kaiana.  Vancouver  in- 
vited her  on  board,  and  by  an  artifice,  in- 
duced the  king  to  come  off  also ;  the  par- 
ties met ;  Vancouver  placed  the  queen's 
hand  in  his;  his  stern  heart,  softened 
at  the  distress  of  his  wife,  resisted  no 
longer.  Reconciliation,  tears  and  a  warm 
embrace  ensued,  but  before  leaving,  the 
queen  persuaded  the  captain  to  induce 
Kamehameha  to  promise  upon  their  re- 
turn to  forego  beating  her.  He  also 
gave  him  useful  hints  for  the  discipline 
of  his  soldiers.  By  his  counsel,  trained 
bands,  armed  with  muskets,  were  form- 
ed, which  were  to  constitute  a  special 
body-guard,  divided  into  regular  watches 
for  the  day  and  night.  These  were 
drilled  by  his  officers,  until  they  consti- 
tuted for  the  islands,  an  invincible  force, 
devoted  to  the  service  of  their  chief. 
He  recommended  his  countrymen,  John 
Young  and  Isaac  Davis,  to  his  confi- 
dence, being  convinced  from  their  good 
conduct,  that  they  were  worthy.  He 
desired  them  to  use  every  endeavor  to 
establish  peace,  and  to  infuse  a  humane  j 
spirit  into  the  domestic  habits,  warfare 
and  government  of  the  nation;  above 
all,  to  devote  themselves  to  the  service 
of  their  benefactor,  and  to  counteract  the 
malicious  designs  of  interested  foreign- 
ers, who  might  be  disposed  to  promote 
bloodshed,  or  defraud  the  natives  of  their 
lands.  He  wished  to  confine  the  num- 
ber of  white  settlers  to  these  two,  or 
such  others  whom  they  could  .trust ;  but 
Kamehameha  and  the  other  chiefs,  knew 


too  well  the  value  of  foreign  auxiliaries 
to  be  induced  to  banish  them.  There 
were  but  few  on  Hawaii,  and  those 
mostly  of  the  better  sort.  Among  them 
was  one  Howell,  once  a  clergyman  of 
the  Church  of  England;  afterward  super- 
cargo of  a  Boston  brig,  which  he  left  at 
this  island.  Vancouver,  with  judgment 
that  reflected  much  honor,  while  he  did 
nothing  to  offend  their  idolatrous  sys- 
tem, which  would  have  at  once  ruined 
his  influence,  endeavored  to  direct  Ka- 
mehameha's  religious  views  into  the  true 
channel.  He  told  him  of  the  one  true 
God,  Creator,  Kuler  and  Judge  of  all 
races  ;  that  their  earthly  deities  were 
vain  and  foolish ;  their  taboo  system 
tyrannical  and  injudicious;  and  that  if 
he  desired  it,  he  would  request  the  king 
of  England  to  send  him  a  teacher  of  the 
true  religion.  His  instructions  seem  to 
have  made  little  impression  upon  the 
heart  of  the  king,  who,  either  from  con- 
viction or  policy,  was  strongly  attached 
to  the  idolatry  of  his  country.  Among 
his  subjects  he  was  considered  favored 
of  their  gods,  and  he  repaid  their  imag- 
inary aid  by  a  respect  to  their  rites, 
which  brought  the  priesthood  into  high 
repute.  The  early  part  of  his  reign  may 
be  considered  as  their  happiest  period. 
Church  and  State  were  in  perfect  har- 
mony, acknowledging  one  head.  For- 
eign influence,  as  yet,  was  not  sufficient 
to  create  any  general  infidelity;  the  lit- 
tle that  did  exist  made  priestcraft  more 
tenacious  and  active,  and  gave  it  a  more 
powerful  hold  in  the  minds  of  the  mass. 
To  confirm  the  general  good-will  and 
establish  an  amnesty  for  past  troubles, 
Palea,  the  chief  who  stole  the  cutter  of 
the  Resolution,  was  allowed  to  visit  the 
vessels  ;  Kameeimoku,  the  murderer  of 
young  Metcalf  and  his  crew,  having 
humbled  himself,  and  urged  in  justifica- 
tion of  his  revenge,  the  harsh  treatment 
he  had  received  from  vthe  father,  obtajn- 
ed  permission  to  come  on  board.  He 
arrived  at  the  bay  in  great  state,  attend- 
ed by  a  thousand  men.  This  act  does 
not  appear  consistent  with  Vancouver's 
previous  inflexibility  in  obtaining  justice 
upon  the  death  of  his  countrymen,  at 
Oahu:  In  this  instance  the  property 
was  American,  and  the  principal  actor 
a  high  chief,  whom  i.t  would  have  been 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


81 


difficult  to  secure,  and  whose  death 
would  have  caused  a  hostility  which 
would  have  led  to  dire  revenge.  Impu- 
nity for  crime  where  wealth  and  rank 
are  engaged,  is  not  peculiar  to  the 
savage. 

He  was  present  at  a  feast  given  by 
Vancouver,  when  an  incident  transpired 
which  shows  how  liable  is  the  slightest 
misconception  in  the  minds  of  savages 
to  lead  to  fatal  results.  The  Hawaiians 
were  accustomed  to  obtain  revenge  by 
the  means  of  powerful  vegetable  poisons, 
in  the  preparation  of  which  a  certain 
class,  called  poisoners,  were  skilled,  and 
whose  art  was  confined  to  themselves. 
During  the  feast,  liquor  was  freely  pass- 
ed about;  Kamehameha  accustomed  to 
its  use  maintained  his  reason,  but  Ka- 
meeimoku  was  soon  overpowered,  and 
in  its  first  effect,  raved  that  the  English 
chief  had  poisoned  him.  His  followers 
were  much  excited,  and  one  who  had 
concealed  an  iron  dagger,  handled  it 
nervously,  while  the  deadliest  passions 
gleamed  from  his  visage.  But  Kame- 
hameha, understanding  the  real  cause, 
ordered  the  drunken  chief  to  be  carried 
out ;  he  was  soon  relieved,  and  returned 
in  perfectly  good  humor.  Had  any  ac- 
cident befallen  him  under  the  operation, 
the  whites  would  have  been  charged 
with  his  murder. 

A  large  concourse  of  people  appeared 
at  the  bay,  but  the  guards  preserved 
admirable  order.  Dramatic  entertain- 
ments were  given  in  the  open  air,  to  an 
audience  of  four  thousand  people,  all 
gaily  appareled,  and  in  excellent  humor. 
At  the  commencement  of  the  exhibition, 
a  girl  dressed  in  figured  tapa,  gathered 
about  her  waist,  and  spreading  down- 
wards after  the  fashion  of  a  hoop  petti- 
coat, with  slow  illustrative  gestures,  re- 
cited a  poem.  After  she  concluded, 
some  females  of  high  rank,  similarly 
dressed,  with  garlands  of  leaves  on  their 
heads  and  shoulders,  appeared,  attended 
by  their  customary  retinues.  The  most 
profound  respect  was  shown  them.  The 
music  consisted  of  rude  drums,  beaten 
with  great  vehemence,  to  the  noise  of 
which  their  actions  corresponded.  They 
vyere  at  first  highly  graceful  and  spirit- 
ed ;  their  recitation  was  a  compound  of  | 
speaking  and  singing,  in  honor  of  the  | 


princess  Keopuolani,  who  was  in  cap- 
tivity, some  sixty  miles  distant.  At  each 
mention  of  her  name,  she  being  the  fe- 
male of  highest  rank  living,  every  spec- 
tator was  required  to  strip  to  the  waist. 
The  scene  concluded  with  a  libidinous 
and  disgusting  dance. 

Before  leaving,  Vancouver  was  con- 
vinced of  the  futility  of  his  efforts  to  se- 
cure peace.  The  people  of  Maui  made 
a  descent  upon  Hawaii,  but  were  driven 
off.  He  obtained  from  the  king  a  taboo 
on  the  cattle  landed,  that  none  should 
be  destroyed  for  ten  years.  This  was 
rigidly  observed,  though  they  increased 
so  rapidly  and  acquired  such  wildness 
as  to  become  troublesome ;  destroying 
food,  breaking  down  inclosures,  and  on 
one  occasion,  goring  four  natives  to 
death.  They  were  finally  driven  to  the 
mountains.  The  women  were  to  be  al- 
lowed to  eat  of  their  flesh,  though  only 
on  the  same  condition  as  dogs ;  the 
animal  of  which  the  men  ate  was  to  be 
entirely  tabooed  from  them. 

On  the  21st  of  February,  a  great 
meeting  of  the  chiefs  was  held  on  board 
the  Discovery,  for  the  purpose,  as  Van- 
couver writes,  of  ceding  Hawaii  to  His 
Britannic  Majesty,  but  as  the  natives, 
with  more  justice,  state,  "  to  request  the 
king  to  protect  our  country."  The  con- 
duct of  Vancouver  had  done  away  all 
the  bad  impressions  of  Cook  ;  the  chiefs 
felt  grateful  for  his  kindness  and  the  in- 
terest he  manifested  in  their  welfare. 
They  had  also  been  led  to  believe  that 
other  countries  looked  with  envious  eyes 
upon  their  domains  and  trouble  would 
ensue,  unless  protection  was  offered  by 
the  greatest  naval  power.  But  the 
prominent  motive  with  them  was  selfish- 
ness ;  in  return  for  the  compliment  they 
expected  to  derive  real  advantages ;  that 
England  would  aid  them  in  uniting  all 
the  islands  under  the  power  of  Hawaii 
and  a  consequence  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world  be  imparted  to  them.  Speeches 
were  made  on  the  occasion  by  Kameha- 
meha, Kaiana,  Kalaimoku,  Keeaumoku 
and  others,  in  which  these  expected  ad- 
vantages were  set  forth  ;  the  chief  topic 
was  the  necessity  of  chastising  their 
contumacious  enemies.  The  chiefs,  as 
if  apprehensive  of  yielding  more  than 
they  intended,  expressly  reserved  to 


82 


BISTORT  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


themselves  the  right  of  sovereignty,  and 
the  entire  regulation  of  their  domestic 
concerns.  In  case  of  disturbance  from 
other  powers,  they  were  to  be  considered 
nominally  as  subjects  of  Great  Britain. 
The  English  evidently  exceeded  the 
right  granted  them  ;  Mr.  Puget  went 
ashore,  hoisted  the  English  colors  and 
took  possession  of  the  island  in  the  name 
of  His  Britannic  Majesty,  leaving  an  in- 
scription on  copper  to  that  effect  in  the 
house  of  the  king.*  A  salute  was  then 
fired,  and  the  natives  shouted  "Kanaka 
no  Beritane," — we  are  men  of  Britain. 
Kameharneha,  Kaahumanu,  Young 


'  and  Davis  staid  on  board  the  Discovery 
!  with  Vancouver  to  the  last  moment,  and 
manifested  much  emotion  at  his  depart- 
ure. The  English  seamen,  although 
they  now  had  it  at  their  option  to  de- 
part, chose  to  return  on  shore  and  re- 
main. The  wealth,  distinctions  and 
families  which  they  possessed,  joined 
with  the  sincere  friendship  of  their  mu- 
nificent patron  and  preserver  of  their 
lives,  were  more  powerful  inducements 
than  the  love  of  their  native  land,  where 
a  sailor's  hard  lot  would  have  awaited 
them. 

The  visit  of  Vancouver  was  beneficial 


DANCE   OF   FEMALES. 


to  both  races.  With  his  own  country- 
men, it  placed  the  character  of  the  na- 
tives in  a  better  light,  and  made  the 
rising  genius  of  their  chief  known  to  the 
world.  The  knowledge  that  a  powerful 
nation  felt  a  deep  interest  in  them,  was 
a  check  both  upon  any  malpractices 
they  might  be  disposed  to  commit,  and 
the  evil  designs  of  the  whites.  It  en- 
lightened the  policy  of  Kameharneha, 
strengthened  his  resources,  and  render- 
ed his  remaining  conquests  easier  and 


*  "  On  the  25th  of  February,  1794,  Kamahamaaha, 
king  of  Owhyhee,  in  council  with  the  principal  chiefs 
of  the  island,  assembled- on  board  His  Britannic  Maj- 
esty's sloop  Discovery,  in  Karakakooa  Bay,  and  in  the 
presence  of  George  Vancouver,  commander  of  said 
sloop,  Lieutenaut'Peter  Puget,  commander  of  his  said 
Majesty's  tender  Chatham,  and  the  other  officers  of  the 
Discovery,  after  due  consideration,  unanimously  ceded 
the  said  island  ot  Owhyhee  to  His  Britannic  Majesty, 
and  acknowledged  themselves  subjects  of  Great  Brit- 
ain."— yancouver^  3d  vol. 


\  more  readily  secured.  Foreigners  in 
I  his  successes  felt  their  own  interests  to 
i  be  promoted,  and  what  under  other  cir- 
|  cumstances  would  have  been  looked 
i  upon  as  a  violent  usurpation,  came  to  be 
!  viewed  as  a  matter  of  expediency  and 
|  advantage,  and  even  of  real  utility  to 
!  the  islanders  themselves. 

Before  leaving,  he  learned  of  an  at- 
I  tempt  of  the  natives  of  Kauai,  instigated 
by  a  few  renegade  seamen,  to  get  pos- 
i  session  of  the  brig  Hancock,  of  Boston. 
It  was  to  have  been  done  by  scuttling 
her,  and  before  she  sunk,  to  haul  her 
upon  the  reef,  under  the  pretence  of 
saving  the  cargo,  which  was  to  have 
been  plundered.  The  design  was  frus- 
trated. The  natives  of  the  leewardmost 
island,  unrestrained  by  the  power  of  any 
dominant  chief,  had  become  more  bold 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


83 


in  their  villainy.  The  dissensions  con- 
tinuing to  increase,  Captain  Brown,  of 
the  Butterworth,  a  London  ship  trading 
at  the  islands,  took  Kahekili  to  Kauai  in 
his  vessel.  By  his  assistance,  Kahekili 
was  enabled  to  place  affairs  in  a  more 
favorable  situation. 

Vancouver  touched  again  at  Kauai, 
and  was  entertained  by  a  dance,  in 
which  six  hundred  women,  dressed  in 
figured  tapas,  took  a  part.  Their  voices 
were  pleasing,  motions  graceful,  and  not 
of  that  licentious  description  he  had 
witnessed  at  Hawaii.  The  recitations 
were  varied  and  harmonious.  On  the 
middle  of  March,  1794,  he  took  his  final 
departure. 

Vancouver  left  behind  him  a  char- 
acter which  the  most  distinguished  of 
his  profession  might  be  proud  of  pos- 
sessing. Had  the  intercourse  of  those 
of  his  countrymen  who  succeeded  him 
been  conducted  upon  the  same  be- 
nevolent principles,  the  natives  of  the 
Hawaiian  Islands  would  have  been  un- 
alterably bound  to  English  interests 
and  feelings.  His  memory  is  still  dear 
to  those  who  knew  him.  Many  chiefs, 
long  after  his  departure,  looked  for  his 
revisit,  which  he  had  given  them  reason 
to  suppose  would  take  place.  As  the 
attachment  was  mutual,  it  is  probable 
that  his  untimely  death  alone  terminated 
his  intentions.  He  promised  the  chiefs 
to  return,  accompanied  by  missionaries 
to  teach  them  a  better  religion,  and  arti- 
sans to  aid  them  in  civilization.  A  high 
rank  was  to  have  been  his,  and  he 
would  have  resided  among  them,  either 
a  resident  with  authority  from  his  gov- 
ernment to  protect  and  promote  their 
interests,  or  by  his  own  judgment  to  di- 
rect their  councils.  His  plan  appears 
to  have  been,  to  have  christianized  and 
civilized  them,  fostered  and  protected  in 
his  relations  by  the  English  ministry. 
The  result  would  have  proved  bene- 
ficial, and  civilization  been  advanced 
twenty  years.  The  islanders  might 
then  have  been  confirmed  in  their  Eng- 
lish predilections,  and  the  wish  of 
Meares  eventually  fulfilled,  that  "  one 
day,  half  a  million  of  human  beings  in- 
habiting these  islands  may  be  ranked 
among  the  civilized  subjects  of  the  Brit- 
ish empire." 


CHAPTER   VII. 

1794,  Honolulu  harbor  discovered  -Murder  of  3!-.-"i-*. 
Brown  and  Gardner,  January  1,  1795  —  Capture  and 
recapture  of  the  Jackall  and  Prince  Le  BOG  —  Trou- 
bles in  Kauai  —  Maui,  Molokai  and  Lanai  HiiMueu, 
1794  —  Oahu  invaded—  Kaiaua's  detection,  rebellion 
and  death  —  Visit  of  H.  B.  31.  ship  Providence,  Cap- 
tain Brougkton  —  Marines  slain  at  Niihau—  Kiune- 
hamehas  proposed  conquest  of  Tahiti—  Completes 
his  conquests  —  Kauai  submits  —  Humane  policy  of 
the  conqueror  —  Government  —  Courtly  etiquette  — 


Laws—  Internal  regulations—  Foreign  policy—  Trade 
est  of  Kauai—  1602—  Great 
tality 
tions—Final  settlement  of  difficulties—  Arrival  of 


—  Preparations  for  conquest 

mortality  —Character  of  Kaumnalii  —  His  prepara- 


Lisiansky— 1804  —  Young,  Governor  of  Hawaii  —  At- 
tempt to  convert  Kamehameha—  Sydney  Bay  con- 
victs —  Foreign  settlers  —  Number—  Campbell—  Death 
of  Davis,  1810  —  Kamehameha's  wealth—  Queens  — 
Liholilio,  his  heir  —  Birth—  Character  —  King  returns 
to  Hawaii  —  Public  works—  Attempt  of  Russian*  in 
Kauai,  1814—  Kotzebue,  1816—  Birth  of  Kauikeaouii 
Nahienaena  —  Voyage  to  China  —  Establishment  oi 
harbor  fees  —  Kamehameha's  desire  to  hear  of  the 
Christian  religion  -Death,  May  8th,  1819—  Sacrifice 
of  dog.  —  Native  account  of  his  funeral  obsequies. 

ON  the  departure  of  Vancouver,  war- 
like operations  were  resumed  ;  the  su- 
perior discipline  and  equipments  of  Ka- 
mehameha's forces,  led  by  chiefs  of  tried 
courage  and  military  skill,  assisted  by 
foreigners,  and  headed  by  the  best  gen- 
eral of  the  group,  gave  the  invaders  a 
decided  advantage. 

Kaeo  and  Kahekili  united  their  forces 
at  Oahu,  and  sailed  with  a  large  number 
of  canoes  for  Hawaii.  The  naval  force 
of  Kamehameha,  the  flag-ship  of  which 
was  the  schooner  Britannia,  armed  with 
three  brass  cannon  taken  from  the  Fail- 
American,  met  them  off  Kohala,  and  in 
an  engagement  destroyed  or  dispersed 
the  combined  fleet.  The  vanquished 
chiefs  fled  to  Maui.  Kahekili,  worn 
down  with  age  and  misfortunes,  fore- 
seeing the  ultimate  triumph  of  his  foe, 
pleaded  for  a  truce.  In  a  message  to 
Kamehameha,  in  reply  to  a  challenge  to 
battle,  "  Wait  till  the  black  tapa  covers 
me,"  said  he,  "and  my  kingdom  shall 
be  yours."  His  death  soon  took  place. 
Kaeo  of  Kauai,  unmindful  of  their  com- 
mon enemy,  and  exasperated  by  a  plot 
to  assassinate  him,  laid  claim  to  his  do- 
minions, in  defiance  of  the  legal  rights 
of  his  nephew,  Kalanikupule.  Kaeo  at 
first  met  with  some  success,  and  several 
foreigners  in  the  service  of  Kalanikupule 
were  slain.  But  the  latter,  with  the 
assistance  of  Mr.  Brown  and  his-  crew, 
was  ultimately  victorious,  and  slew  him 
in  an  engagement  at  Kalauao  in  1794. 
Brown  was  master  of  the  English  ship 
Butterworth.  The  same  year  he  dis- 
covered and  surveyed  the  harbor  of 


84 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


Honolulu,  which  he  called  Fairhaven. 
It  was  first  entered  by  the  schooner 
Jackall,  tender  to  that  ship.  On  the  1st 
of  January,  of  the  ensuing  year,  1795, 
Brown  was  in  this  harbor  with  two  ves- ' 
sels,  the  Jackall  and  Prince  Le  Boo ; 
the  Butterworth  had  sailed  for  England. 
The  American  sloop  Lady  Washington, 
Captain  Kendrick,  was  lying  in  the  har- 
bor at  the  same  time.  Captain  Brown 
on  his  return  to  Honolulu  from  fighting 
in  the  ranks  of  Kalanikupule,  fired  a 
salute  in  honor  of  his  victory.  A  wad 
from  one  of  his  guns  entered  the  cabin 
of  the  Lady  Washington  and  killed 
Captain  Kendrick,  who  was  at  dinner. 
Captain  Kendrick  was  buried  on  shore, 
and  the  funeral  service  at  his  interment 
was  the  first  Christian  rite  of  the  kind 
witnessed  by  Hawaiians.  They  looked 
upon  the  ceremony  as  sorcery  to  com- 
pass the  death  of  Captain  Brown.  The 
grave  was  rifled  the  same  night  to  pro- 
cure the  winding  sheet.  The  Lady 
Washington  sailed  soon  after,  leaving 
Captain  Brown  at  Honolulu,  who  fur- 
nished Kalanikupule  with  fire-arms  and 
contracted  a  great  intimacy  with  him.* 
From  the  assistance  he  had  rendered 
Kalanikupule,  and  the  general  good  feel- 
ing which  a  long  intercourse  had  engen- 
dered, he  felt  secure  from  any  treachery 
on  his  part,  and  abode  with  him  in  an 
unguarded  manner.  A  petty  chief  sug- 
gested to  Kalanikupule  a  plot  to  cut  off 
Captain  Brown  and  his  vessels.  At  first 
he  opposed  the  treachery,  but  finally 
consented,  and  a  plan  was  concerted  to 
capture  both  vessels.  On  the  anniver- 
sary of  the  new  year,  the  crews  were 
ashore,  engaged  in  pleasure,  and  in  pre- 
paring stores  for  their  voyage.  Taking 
advantage  of  the  defenceless  condition 
of  the  vessels,  the  natives  flocked  off. 
Brown,  and  Gardner  the  other  com- 
mander, were  instantly  murdered ;  one 
by  being  precipitated  through  the  hatch 
with  sufficient  force  to  dislocate  his 
neck ;  the  few  remaining  individuals 
were  wounded,  and  the  possession  of 
the  decks  secured.  The  pirates  then 
took  the  vessels  out  of  the  harbor,  into 
Waikiki  Bay.  The  seamen  ashore  re- 
ceiving intelligence  of  their  capture,  as- 
sembled and  pushed  off  in  their  boats  ; 


*  Dibble,  page*  68  and  69. 


by  a  vigorous  attack,  the  natives  were 
overpowered,  and  driven  overboard ; 
having  regained  possession  of  the  ves- 
sels, the  survivors  of  the  crews  sailed 
without  delay  for  China.  It  is  remark- 
able that  these  piratical  attempts  should 
have  been  committed  within  two  miles 
of  the  spot  of,  and  not  long  after  the  ex- 
ecution of  the  murderers  of  Lieutenant 
Hergest  and  Mr.  Gooch. 

Kamehameha  supported  in  his  ambi- 
tious desires  by  the  last  words  of  Kahe- 
kili,  set  out  with  all  his  disposable  force, 
said  to  have  amounted  to  sixteen  thou- 
sand men,  to  subjugate  the  neighboring 
islands.  Young,  Davis  and  a  few  other 
foreigners,  expert  in  the  use  of  fire-arms, 
accompanied  him.  Maui,  Lanai  and 
Molokai  were  quickly  overrun,  suffered 
all  the  horrors  of  savage  warfare,  and 
were  effectually  subdued.  Oahu,  to 
which  the  heir  of  Kahekili  had  retired, 
was  his  next  aim.  In  February,  1795, 
he  prepared  for  this  expedition,  and 
landed  upon  that  island  with  one  detach- 
ment of  his  army,  leaving  the  remainder 
under  the  command  of  Kaiana,  with 
orders  to  follow  without  delay.  His  ar- 
rival was  impatiently  awaited,  that  an 
attack  might  be  made  upon  the  enemy, 
who  had  made  preparations  for  a  vigor- 
ous defence.  Kaiana,  thinking  this  a 
favorable  opportunity  to  crush  his  rival, 
embarked  for  Oahu  ;  and  avoiding  the 
camp  of  his  king,  deserted  with  all  his 
forces  to  Kalanikupule.  He  was  aware 
that  if  Kamehameha  could  be  destroyed 
by  their  combined  exertions,  there  would 
be  no  chief  left  of  sufficient  energy  and 
resources  to  compete  with  him,  and  the 
authority  to  which  Kamehameha  aspired 
would  be  his.  But  his  treachery  proved 
his  ruin.  Kamehameha,  nothing  dis- 
pirited by  the  news  of  his  defection, 
marched  to  the  valley  of  Nuuanu,  where 
the  two  chiefs  were  encamped.  Their 
position  was  on  the  steep  side  of  a  hill, 
about  three  miles  in  the  rear  of  the  pres- 
ent town  of  Honolulu  :  a  stone  wall  pro- 
tected them  in  front,  and  the  steepness 
of  the  ground  availed  them  against  an 
assault.  Believing  themselves  secure, 
they  defied  their  enemies  with  insulting 
gestures  and  bravados.  A  field-piece, 
which  Young  had  brought  to  bear  upon 
them,  knocked  the  stones  about  their 


HISTORY   OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


85 


heads,  killed  Kaiana,  and  so  disordered 
their  ranks  that  they  broke  and  fled. 
The  forces  of  Kamehameha  charged;  in 
the  onslaught  many  of  the  Oahuans 
were  slain,  and  the  rest  pursued  with 
great  slaughter,  until  they  were  driven 
to  the  end  of  the  valley,  which  termi- 
nates in  a  precipice  of  six  hundred  feet, 
nearly  perpendicular  height,  forming  a 
bold  and  narrow  gorge  between  two  for- 
est-clad mountains.  A  few  made  their 
escape ;  some  were  driven  headlong  over 
its  brink,  and  tumbled,  mangled  and  life- 
less corpses,  on  the  rocks  and  trees  be- 
neath ;  others  fought  with  desperation 
and  met  a  warrior's  death,  among  whom 
was  Kalanikupule,  who  gallantly  con- 
tested his  inheritance  to  the  last.  The 
bodies  of  the  slain  were  sacrificed,  and 
their  heads  impaled  upon  the  walls  of 
the  heiau  at  Waikiki.  Three  hundred 
perished  in  the  fight ;  but  numbers  es- 
caped to  Kauai,  among  whom  were  two 
high  chiefs.  This  decisive  victory  put 
the  conqueror  in  possession  of  all  the 
group,  except  Kauai  and  Niihau.  These 
he  prepared  to  attack,  and  embarked  for 
that  purpose  ;  but  a  violent  wind  drove 
him  back,  and  obliged  him  to  suspend 
his  designs. 

In  January,  1796,  Capt.  Broughton,* 
commanding  H.  B.  M.  sloop  Providence, 
of  sixteen  guns,  anchored  at  Kealakea- 
kua  Bay,  where  he  remained  three  weeks 
in  amicable  intercourse  with  the  natives. 
His  wants  were  liberally  supplied  by  the 
lieutenants  of  Kamehameha.  Leaving 
this  place,  he  spent  a  few  days  at  La- 
haina,  where  the  same  hospitality  await- 
ed him.  He  then  anchored  at  Waikiki 
Bay,  where  he  received  a  message  from 
Kamehameha,  inquiring  if  he  should  sa- 
lute the  ship  with  his  heavy  guns.  Pro- 
visions were  abundantly  sent  on  board, 
and  the  usual  presents  of  feathered 
cloaks.  His  next  visit  was  to  Kauai, 
where  he  saw  Kaumualii,  who  was  en- 
deavoring to  suppress  an  insurrection, 
and  urgently  solicited  a  supply  of  pow- 
der. Broughton  exerted  himself,  though 
vainly,  to  appease  the  hostile  parties. 

In  July,  after  a  cruise  to  the  north, 
he  returned  to  Hawaii ;  and  being  in 
want  of  water,  was  obliged  to  pay  at 


*  Broughton's  Voyagre  of  Discovery,  page  35.    Lon- 
don: ito;  1804. 


the  rate  of  one  hundred  nails  the  hogs- 
head, it  being  brought  five  miles  in 
calabashes,  from  a  scanty  source.  He 
found  the  cattle  and  poultry  left  by  Van- 
couver had  increased  rapidly.  This  was 
the  period  of  the  rebellion  of  Namakeha, 
brother  of  Kaiana,  who  had  overrun  a 
part  of  the  island,  and  was  fast  gaining 
ground.  In  one  battle  a  European  was 
killed.  The  officers  of  Kamehameha 
were  in  great  trepidation,  but  vigorously 
endeavored  to  stem  the  efforts  of  the 
traitorous  chief,  while  they  sent  des- 
patches to  inform  their  king  of  the  un- 
expected revolt.  At  the  same  time, 
Broughton  sailed  for  Oahu,  where  he 
arrived  on  the  25th  of  July.  The  island 
was  suffering  all  the  miseries  of  pro- 
tracted warfare;  provisions  were  exceed- 
ingly scarce  ;  many  natives  had  starved 
to  death,  and  some  had  been  burnt  alive 
by  their  chiefs  for  stealing  food  to  sup- 
ply their  famishing  families.  Kameha- 
meha was  said  to  have  already  lost  six 
thousand  of  his  troops ;  the  losses  of  the 
enemy  had  been  far  greater.  Probably 
at  no  period  had  depopulation  been 
going  on  at  a  more  rapid  rate,  espe- 
cially at  the  leeward  islands.  War, 
famine,  pestilence  and  oppression,  with 
all  the  attending  evils  of  an  unsettled 
community,  bore  heavily  upon  the  na- 
tion. 

At  Kauai  all  provisions  were  tabooed, 
except  for  powder.  Broughton  finding 
it  impossible  to  obtain  supplies  from  the 
larger  islands,  sailed,  July  28th,  for  Nii- 
hau,  to  procure  yams.  On  the  30th,  he 
sent  a  party  ashore  in  a  cutter,  with 
only  two  armed  marines.  The  crew- 
being  incautious,  were  suddenly  attack- 
ed ;  the  marines  killed  for  the  sake  of 
their  accoutrements;  the  botanist  knock- 
ed down,  and,  with  the  remainder,  nar- 
rowly escaped  being  murdered.  Their 
situation  being  seen  from  the  ship,  as- 
sistance was  sent.  The  detachment 
fired  upon  the  natives,  without,  how- 
ever, harming  any.  Having  landed, 
they  burned  all  the  houses  within  their 
reach,  and  destroyed  sixteen  canoes. 
Not  being  able  to  obtain  further  satis- 
faction, the  ship  sailed  on  the  21st. 
This  is  the  last  of  the  wanton  murders 
which  stain  the  earlier  Hawaiian  annals. 

It  was   Kamehameha's   desire,   after 


86 


H1STOEY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


completing  the  conquest  of  Kauai  and 
its  tributary  island,  to  have  sailed  for 
Tahiti,  and  carried  his  arms  to  the  south 
of  the  equator.  This  scheme  was  sug- 
gested by  some  natives  of  that  island 
with  him.  It  would  indeed  have  been 
a  singular  spectacle,  to  have  witnessed 
this  triumphant  chieftain  embarking  the 
flower  of  his  forces  on  board  of  his  fleet 
of  canoes,  or  tiny  vessels,  chartering  per- 
haps some  of  a  larger  size,  for  an  ex- 
pedition against  scarcely  known  lands, 
thousands  of  miles  distant.  The  design 
was  worthy  of  hi&  ambition;  and  had  he 
been  able  to  have  extended  his  conquests 
over  the  boundaries  of  Polynesia,  he 
might  have  sighed  for  "  new  worlds  to 
conquer,"  and  the  petty  leader  of  a  bar- 
barian tribe  have  become  master  of  the 
Pacific.  But  his  destiny  was  to  found 
a  less  extended,  though  better  consol- 
idated power. 

News  of  the  reverses  in  Hawaii  hav- 
ing reached  him,  he  promptly  embarked 
for  that  island,  where  his  presence  soon 
decided  the  contest.  Namakeha,  the 
head  of  the  conspiracy,  was  slain,  and 
his  followers  subdued. 

This  was  the  last  war  in  which  he 
was  actively  engaged ;  all  opposition  to 
his  authority  was  now  over.  His  orig- 
inal territory  was  Halaula,  a  large  dis- 
trict on  the  northeast  coast  of  Hawaii, 
which  he  inherited  from  his  parents. 
During  the  lifetime  of  Kalaniopuu,  he 
acquired  a  portion  of  Kona  ;  and  it  was 
the  war  which  arose  in  consequence  of 
the  attempts  of  his  cousin  to  dispossess 
him,  that  developed  his  martial  energies, 
and  step  by  step,  led  him  on  until  he 
was  master  of  the  group.  His  talents 
were  no  less  conspicuous  in  establishing 
his  power,  than  in  acquiring  it.  To- 
wards the  conquered  families  he  prac- 
ticed no  unnecessary  severity;  the  prin- 
cipal, by  alliances  or  gifts,  were  firmly 
bound  to  his  interests.  He  espoused 
Keopuolani,  grand-daughter  of  Kalani- 
opuu, who  became  his  prisoner  at  the 
conquest  of  Maui.  As  she  was  a  lineal 
descendant  of  the  ancient  kings  of  Maui 
and  Hawaii,  this  marriage  strengthened 
his  title  to  the  throne.  Kalaimoku,  now 
his  trusty  counselor,  had  fought  in  the 
ranks  of  Keoua  at  Keei,  was  made  a 
prisoner  and  owed  his  life  to  his  clem- 


ency.     Although    allied    to    the   roya 
family  of  Maui,  he  became  strongly  at 
tached    to    him.      The   descendants    o 
Kahekili  were  liberally  cared  for.     Th< 
beneficence  and  hjimanity  of  the   con 
queror,  left  chiefs  and  people  nothing  to 
regret  in  the   change   of  masters.     He 
had  the  faculty  of  inspiring  those  about 
him  with  generous  sentiments,  and  cre- 
ating in  them  a  resolution  and  energy 
of   purpose,    second    only   to    his    own. 
An  almost  intuitive  perception  of  char- 
acter, enabled  him  to  secure  the  affec- 
tion and  co-operation  of  the  best  of  his 
countrymen. 

The  nominal  submission  of  the  king 
of  Kauai  contented  his  ambition  as  to 
the  dependencies  of  that  chief,  though 
he  never  lost  sight  of  their  ultimate  con- 
quest. He  remained  at  Hawaii  four 
years,  and  afterward  spent  much  time 
at  Lahaina,  occupied  in  establishing  his 
power  on  a  permanent  basis.  The  po- 
litical axiom  upon  which  his  legislation 
was  framed,  was  that  all  the  lands  in 
the  group  were  his.  This  principle  had 
I  been  before  acknowledged,  though  not 
in  so  complete  a  sense.  To  their  old 
I  custom,  he  added  the  cogent  argument 
I  of  conquest,  in  right  of  which  he  claimed 
to  be  the  sole  lord  and  proprietor  of  the 
soil.  This  was  apportioned  among  his 
followers  according  to  their  rank  and 
deserts  ;  they  holding  it  on  the  feudal 
tenure  of  rendering  military  services, 
and  a  proportion  of  its  revenue.  It  was 
generally  confirmed  to  their  heirs,  but 
this  depended  upon  the  will  of  the  king. 
His  authority  was  absolute  ;  dispensing 
with  his  own  regulations  as  his  interests 
dictated.  But  such  an  event  was  rare  ; 
and  under  his  reign  the  ancient  tradi- 
tionary laws  of  the  kingdoms  were  so 
arranged  and  executed  as  to  have  all  the 
force  of  a  written  code.  Each  island  or 
cluster,  had  a  governor;  he,  with  the 
approval  of  the  king,  appointed  chiefs 
of  districts ;  head  men,  who  presided 
over  villages ;  tax  gatherers,  and  other 
petty  officers.  Beside  the  general  pro- 
prietorship of  the  soil,  the  king  held  cer- 
tain districts  which  were  his  private 
property,  and  under  no  authority  except 
his  own.  Favorite  chiefs  sometimes  re- 
ceived lands  in  this  way,  independent  of 
the  governors.  No  regular  amount  of 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


87 


ces  was  enforced.  The  governors 
were  accountable  to  the  king  for  the 
amounts  apportioned  lo  them ;  they  reg- 
ulated theirs,  by  their  desires  or  the 
resources  of  the  people ;  the  chiefs  re- 
quired another,  and  the  lesser  officials 
left  but  little  to  the  poor  tenants.  Lands 
were  sometimes  leased  upon  regular 
agreements  as  to  the  amounts  of  the 
crops.  Those  who  were  deficient  in 
their  rents,  were  turned  from  the  land, 
and  their  property  transferred  to  others. 
The  districts  were  divided  into  towns  or 
villages,  and  these  subdivided  into  farms 
or  plantations;  to  which  a  definite  por- 
tion of  mountain  land,  valley  and  sea 
shore,  with  right  of  forest  and  fisheries, 
were  attached.  The  tax  gatherers, 
though  without  a  knowledge  of  writing, 
kept  true  records  of  the  various  lands, 
their  resources,  and  the  amount  of  taxes 
rendered,  by  lines  of  cordage  of  several 
hundred  fathoms  in  length.  The  sev- 
eral districts  were  distinguished  by 
knots,  loops  and  tufts  of  various  sizes, 
shapes  and  colors.  The  different  taxa- 
ble articles  and  their  rates  were  marked 
upon  it,  in  an  equally  ingenious  man- 
ner. Beside  the  stipulated  rents,  pres- 
ents of  the  first  fruits  of  agriculture  or 
the  fisheries,  were  required  to  be  made 
to  the  chiefs.  Certain  lands,  the  gift  of 
favoritism  or  the  reward  of  distinguished 
services,  were  held  free  from  all  rents 
or  taxes,  although  it  was  customary  to 
make  presents;  the  value  and  frequency 
of  which  were  optional  with  the  giver. 
From  the  most  faithful  of  his  warriors, 
his  governors  or  counselors  were  se- 
lected, and  he  seldom  decided  upon  an 
important  measure  without  their  advice. 
A  certain  number  constituted  a  regular 
cabinet,  and  enjoyed  his  full  confidence. 
Merit,  more  than  rank,  was  the  pass- 
port to  his  favor.  Keeaumoku,  a  chief- 
tain of  prodigious  personal  strength, 
who  had  rendered  distinguished  ser- 
vices, was  at  the  head  of  his  council. 
He  was  the  father  of  a  son  of  the  same 
name,  heir  to  his  titles,  afterward  known 
as  Governor  Cox,  and  of  Kaahumanu, 
Piia,  Kuakini  and  Kekauluohi,  the  late 
premier.  Kalaimoku,  Manawa  and  Ka- 
meeiamoku,  were  also  particularly  dis- 
tinguished. Besides  these,  he  had  a 
number  of  "  wise  men,"  who  assisted 


!  him  in  the  organization  of  laws,  and 
regulating  the  minor  affairs  of  his  king- 
dom. So  perfect  was  the  order  pre- 
served by  his  agents,  that  the  anarchy 
which  had  laid  waste  lands  and  de- 
stroyed people,  was  entirely  checked. 
Peace  was  everywhere  firmly  establish- 
ed. Laws  were  enacted  prohibiting 
murders,  theft,  oppression  and  the  usual 
crimes  of  a  disturbed  country.  So  com- 
plete a  change  was  effected,  that  old 

j  and  young,  the  innocent  and  helpless, 

I  abode  in  comparative  security.  Con- 
trasted with  former  disorder,  it  may 
with  propriety  be  termed  a  golden  age. 
Kamehameha  permitted  no  crimes  but 
his  own,  when  his  interests  were  net  too 
deeply  involved.  To  consider  actions 
sanctioned  by  their  customs  from  time 
immemorial,  a  blot  upon  his  character, 
would  be  unjust,  however  arbitrary  they 
may  appear  to  those  whose  lot  has  been 
placed  in  a  land  of  freedom.  They  were 
merciful  in  comparison  with  what  the 
islanders  had  undergone.  No  penalty 

j  could  reach  an   individual  screened  by 

!  the  favor  of  his  chief,  and  the  favorites 
of  Kamehameha  enjoyed  the  exemption 
common  to  successful  courtiers. 

Those  chiefs,  whose  ambitious  views 

|  he  feared  might  disturb  his  newly  ac- 

|  quired  power,  were  retained  about  his 

|  person,  and  obliged  to  follow  in  his  train 
wherever  he  went.  By  this  means  they 
were  kept  from  their  hereditary  do- 
mains, where  they  might  have  excited 
discontent,  and  were  always  under  the 
observation  of  faithful  attendants,  by 
whom  any  symptom  of  dissatisfaction 
would  have  been  detected.  The  most 
powerful  provinces  were  placed  under 
the  charge  of  those  whose  fidelity  was 
undoubted.  Young,  who  was  not  liable 
to  become  involved  in  the  intrigues  of 

I  the  native  princes,  was  left  in  charge 
of  Hawaii,  a  station  which  he  filled  for 
many  years,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
king,  foreigners  and  natives.  Davis  rc- 

!  mained  about  the  person  of  the  sover- 
eign and  enjoyed  extensive  possessions, 

j  free  from  taxation.  They  both  accom- 
modated their  modes  of  living  to  the 
manners  of  the  natives,  and  from  their 

I  humanity  and  usefulness  became  de- 
servedly popular.  As  his  power  grew 

i  more  firmly  established,  the  king  affect- 


83 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


ed  greater  state ;  consequently  the  peo- 
ple had  less  access  to  his  person.  The 
foolish  and  arbitrary  customs  of  the  an- 
cient kings  of  Hawaii  were  rigidly  en- 
forced, with  such  additional  ceremony 
as  was  calculated  to  increase  the  awe  of 
his  own  subjects,  and  his  importance  in 
the  eyes  of  foreigners.  Whenever  he 
passed,  heads  and  shoulders  were  to  be 
uncovered ;  the  same  was  required  on 
approaching  his  residence,  or  any  house 
which  he  had  honored  with  his  presence. 
When  his  food  was  carried  to  or  from 
him,  every  person  within  hearing  of  the 
cry  uttered  by  the  menials,  was  obliged 
to  uncover  and  seat  himself  after  the  na- 
tive manner,  by  squatting  on  his  hams. 

Before  any  article  could  be  touched, 
the  attendants  were  obliged  to  strip  to 
the  malo.  Neither  the  shadow  of  the 
king  nor  of  his  house  could  be  crossed. 
His  drinking  water  was  brought  from 
particular  springs,  many  miles  inland, 
reserved  for  his  use  ;  and  as  the  car- 
riers ran  past,  the  same  humbling  cere- 
mony as  for  his  food,  was  required.  To 
be  above  him,  was  the  highest  crime. 
Not  a  subject  dared  appear  on  the  part 
of  the  deck  of  a  vessel  under  which  he 
by  chance  might  be.  The  etiquette  re- 
quired from  chiefs  varied  according  to 
their  rank,  but  was  of  the  most  obse- 
quious character. 

The  attention  required  to  religious 
duties  was  equally  rigid.  By  this  sys- 
tem of  uniform  despotism,  of  which  he 
formed  the  sole  head,  the  condition  of 
the  people  was  greatly  ameliorated,  for 
it  broke  the  power  of  the  petty  lords 
who  heretofore,  like  locusts,  consumed 
all  that  the  storm  had  spared.  Chiefs 
were  provided  with  retinues  suitable  to 
their  stations.  Laws,  regulating  the 
fisheries  and  agriculture,  were  promul- 
gated ;  in  both  these  pursuits  he  set  a 
laudable  example  of  industry,  by  work- 
ing with  his  own  hands.  By  suitable 
rewards,  he  encouraged  the  skillful  in 
the  various  handicrafts.  No  object, 
however  trivial,  was  beneath  his  notice, 
provided  it  added  to  his  wealth  and  re- 
sources. His  vessels  were  free  to.  his 
subjects,  and  on  the  whole,  taxes  were 
not  onerous.  His  soldiers  were  well 
disciplined,  and  were  divided  into  vari- 
ous bodies ;  some  of  whom  were  his 


body  guard,  while  others  were  appoint- 
ed for  his  wives  ;  principally  as  checks 
upon  illicit  intercourse.  If  they  failed 
in  their  duty,  they  were  punished  with 
death.  His  partial  native  biographers 
thus  feelingly  sum  up  his  excellencies, 
the  more  prominent  from  the  contrast 
with  earlier  and  subsequent  reigns  ;  and 
they  illustrate  the  nature  of  the  extor- 
tions too  often  practiced.  "  He  did  not 
become  involved  in  debt,  nor  exact  much 
silver  from  his  subjects ;  he  did  not  cut 
from  a  division  of  land  on  this  side  and 
that,  till  only  a  circular  and  centre  piece 
of  the  original  field  remained  ;  he  did 
not  by  petty  taxation  collect  all  the 
hens,  ducks  and  turkeys ;  nor  appoint 
days  in  which  his  subjects  were  all  to 
labor  for  his  exclusive  benefit;  his  meas- 
ures were  generous  and  constant,  not 
fickle  and  oppressive." 

In  his  foreign  relations  his  acts  were 
characterized  by  equal  liberality.  In 
the  infancy  of  his  power  he  was  in  the 
habit  of  procuring  from  commanders  tes- 
timonials of  his  honest  and  hospitable 
conduct ;  but  this  was  relinquished  as 
soon  as  his  reputation  became  estab- 
lished. No  chief  was  better  acquainted 
with  the  real  character  of  foreigners, 
and  the  purposes  for  which  they  visited 
his  dominions.  To  the  war-ships,  or 
those  that  came  for  scientific  purposes, 
he  showed  himself  the  hospitable  prince ; 
to  traders,  a  merchant  not  excelled  in 
sagacity  by  the  keenest,  nor  in  reputa- 
tion by  the  most  honorable.  He  made 
himself  well  acquainted  with  weights, 
measures,  currencies  and  proportionate 
values,  and  monopolized  the  most  profit- 
able sources  of  trade.  His  equitable 
I  regulations  induced  ships  to  visit  his 
shores ;  while  his  extended  power  in- 
sured them  an  equally  welcome  recep- 
tion in  all  portions  of  his  kingdom.  No 
port  in  the  Pacific  was  better  known 
than  Honolulu.  By  his  energies,  a  petty 
fleet  of  foreign  built  vessels  was  col- 
lected; soldiers  were  drilled,  equipped, 
and  dressed  in  a  motley  uniform ;  bat- 
teries of  heavy  guns  mounted ;  rude 
forts  erected ;  and  a  corps  of  foreign 
artisans  and  sailors,  received  into  his 
service,  well  treated,  freed  from  the  vex- 
atious etiquette  required  from  the  high- 
est ot  his  own  race,  but  compelled  to 


HISTORY   OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


89 


preserve  order,  and  render  due  obedi- 
ence to  the  authority  which  supported 
them.  His  own  subjects,  by  his  encour- 
agement, manifested  an  aptness  in  ac- 
quiring civilized  arts,  that  alarmed  many 
of  these  foreign  mercenaries ;  even  Isaac 
Davis,  with  an  illiberality  that  dishonors 
his  general  good  conduct,  sought  to  pre- 
vent the  extension  of  knowledge  among 
them ;  observing,  "  they  will  soon  know 
more  than  ourselves."*  All  his  subjects 
were  required  to  keep  their  weapons  in 
perfect  order,  so  as  to  be  ready  for  war 
at  the  shortest  notice. 

His  observations  of  foreign  manufac- 
tures and  customs  denoted  an  inquiring, 
intelligent  mind.  No  idea  or  circum- 
stance that  could  be  made  serviceable 
escaped  his  notice.  He  took  great  de- 
light in  visiting  fine  specimens  of  naval 
architecture.  His  arrival  was  some- 
times announced  in  form,  and  the  visit 
conducted  with  ceremony  ;  but  friend- 
ship once  formed,  artificial  restraint  was 
thrown  aside,  and  he  would  put  off  by 
himself  in  a  canoe,  and  go  on  board  in 
the  most  unceremonious  manner.  In 
1S01,  a  fine  Boston  clipper-built  ship, 
commanded  by  Capt.  William  Sturgis, 
was  lying  in  his  principal  harbor,  and 
as  she  was  engaged  in  the  Indian  trade, 
martial  order  was  preserved  on  board. 
Kamehameha  coming  off  alone,  was  re- 
pulsed by  the  sentinel,  who  did  not 
recognize  his  person.  He  then  gave  his 
name,  and  with  the  permission  of  the 
officer  of  the  deck,  was  admitted.  So 
far  from  feeling  chagrined  at  this  want 
of  respect,  he  complimented  the  captain 
upon  his  excellent  discipline,  and  called 
the  sentinel  a  "  worthy  fellow." 

In  1801,  Kamehameha  returned  to 
Oahu,  to  prepare  for  the  conquest  of 
Kauai.  This  occupied  him  two  years. 
He  raised  seven  thousand  warriors  and 
fifty  whites,  mostly  armed  with  muskets. 
Beside  these,  he  had  forty  swivels,  six 
mortars  and  abundance  of  ammunition. 
A  fleet  of  twenty -one  schooners,  from 
ten  to  fifty  tons  each,  some  of  which 
carried  guns,  and  were  commanded  by 
Europeans,  and  a  vast  number  of  war- 
canoes,  were  prepared  to  convey  this 
force,  against  which  the  Kauaians  could 
have  offered  but  faint  resistance.  At 


•  Campbell's  Voyages,  page  141. 

12 


this  time — 1804 — he  added  to  his  navy 
the  American  ship  Lilybird,  mounting- 
twenty  guns.  She  had  got  ashore,  and 
he  purchased  her  by  exchanging  one  of 
his  schooners,  and  paying  the  difference 
in  dollars.  Before  he  could  embark  his 
forces,  an  epidemic  broke  out  among 
them,  of  a  peculiar  character,  which 
spread  over  the  island  and  proved  very 
fatal.  Multitudes  perished ;  among  them 
some  of  his  chief  counselors.  Three 
hundred  dead  bodies  are  said  to  have 
been  carried  out  to  sea  from  Waikiki  in 
one  day.  He  was  himself  attacked,  but 
recovered.  The  sons  of  the  deceased 
chiefs  succeeded  to  the  offices  of  their 
fathers,  but  never  acquired  as  much  in- 
fluence as  those  who  had  shared  all  his 
perils. 

Kaeo,  king  of  Kauai,  had  been  suc- 
ceeded by  Kaumualii,  his  son.  The 
bright  parts  and  generous  spirits  noticed 
by  Vancouver,  had  been  fully  sustained. 
His  subjects  were  devotedly  attached  to 
him,  as  were  also  a  number  of  foreign- 
ers, who  had  enlisted  in  his  service. 
Like  his  rival  of  Oahu,  he  was  friendly 
to  strangers,  and  encouraged  trade ;  pos- 
sessing equal  humanity  and  intelligence, 
he  was  deficient  in  the  martial  talent 
and  iron  will  which  characterized  Kame- 
hameha. Fear  and  courage  alternated ; 
supported  by  the  generous  devotion  of 
his  people,  he  had  energetically  prepared 
to  resist  attack.  His  warriors  were  well 
armed,  and  a  store  of  European  arms 
and  ammunition  had  been  provided,  suf- 
ficient to  have  protracted  his  fate,  if  he 
had  vigorously  opposed  the  invader. 
With  the  capricious  spirit  of  one  of  his 
disposition,  encouraged  by  the  long  de- 
lay which  had  attended  Kamebameha^ 
operations,  he  sent  him  repeated  mes- 
sages of  defiance,  and  finally  threatened5 
to  invade  Oahu.  But  this  bravado  was 
not  borne  out;  for  fully  appreciating  the 
great  resources  opposed  to  him,  he 
caused  the  mechanics  in  his  pay  to  pre- 
pare a  vessel,  in  which,  as  a  last  re- 
source, he  with  his  family,  could  fly  the 
island,  and  abandoning  themselves  to 
the  wide  Pacific,  find  such  a  home  as  the 
winds  and  waves  might  provide  them. 
This  was  an  idea  worthy  of  his  genius, 
in  the  composition  of  which,  much  that 
was  chivalrous  entered.  Without  a 


90 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


knowledge  of  navigation,  but  possessing 
the  compass,  he  could  easily  have  car- 
ried his  fortunes  to  some  of  the  groups 
further  to  the  leeward,  and  there  found- 
ed a  new  dynasty. 

The  vastness  of  Kamehameha's  pre- 
parations showed  his  opinion  of  the  im- 
portance of  the  conquest,  and  argued 
considerable  respect  for  the  military  skill 
and  resources  of  Kaumualii.  The  dis- 
ease which  destroyed  the  flower  of  his 
troops,  did  not  check  his  ardor.  Turn- 
bull,  who  arrived  at  this  juncture  in  an 
English  ship,  was  importuned  by  Ka- 
mehameha to  take  him,  and  an  officer 
of  his  army,  to  Kauai,  that  they  might 
themselves  see  the  condition  of  the  isl- 
and. This  bold  request  was  refused. 
An  American  captain  then  in  port, 
whose  interests  would  have  been  greatly 
jeopardized  by  the  war,  volunteered  to 
sail  for  Kauai,  and  induce  Kaumualii  to 
return  with  him,  and  enter  into  negotia- 
tions at  Oahu.  As  the  presence  of  Ka- 
mehameha  was  necessary  at  Hawaii, 
where  a  deficiency  in  the  revenue  had 
occurred,  he  consented  to  this  measure. 
The  captain  sailed  for  Waimea,  and  by 
leaving  his  mate  as  a  hostage  for  the 
safe  return  of  their  king,  a  measure, 
•without  which  his  subjects  would  not 
have  permitted  his  departure,  Kaumualii 
embarked.  In  the  word  of  his  enemy,  | 
pledged  for  his  safety,  he  had  entire  con- 
fidence ;  so  greatly  was  Kamehameha 
respected  by  those  to  whom  treachery 
had,  not  long  before,  been  far  more  com- 
mon than  truth.  He  was  received  and 
entertained  with  princely  greeting ;  fes- 
tivity, shows,  and  every  profession  of 
friendship  attested  the  good  disposition 
of  his  royal  entertainer.  Won  over,  he 
ceded  to  Kamehameha  his  kingdom ; 
this  was  generously  relinquished,  and 
an  agreement  made,  by  which  the  lee- 
ward king  was  to  hold  his  islands  in  fief 
from  Kamehameha,  retaining  all  that 
was  legitimately  his  own,  and  in  addi- 
tion receiving  the  protection  of  the 
greater  power.  In  this  manner  the  isl- 
ands were  nominally  united  under  one 
sovereignty,  while  each  king  ruled  in 
his  appropriate  sphere  ;  the  treaty  thus 
peaceably  agreed  upon,  gave  mutual  sat- 
isfaction, and  was  faithfully  respected 
during  the  lifetime  of  Kamehameha. 


Some  of  his  enemies  give  a  different, 
but  highly  improbable  version  of  this 
negotiation.  They  state  that  the  death 
of  Kaumualii  was  designed ;  and  that 
the  welcome  he  received  was  intended 
to  allay  suspicion.  The  time  of  his  fate 
was  fixed,  but  the  American  captain  get- 
ting wind  of  it,  went  on  shore,  brought 
the  king  off,  and  sailed  immediately  for 
Kauai.  If  this  were  true,  the  friendship 
which  afterward  existed  between  the 
two  is  unaccountable,  and  is  sufficient 
to  disprove  the  statement.  A  more  prob- 
able version  is  that  his  assassination  was 
proposed  to  Kamehameha  by  some  of 
his  petty  chiefs,  or  if  that  failed,  by 
means  of  sorcery.  Kamehameha  in  his 
indignation  slew  the  proposed  sorcerer. 
The  chiefs  then  plotted  secretly  to  kill 
him,  but  Isaac  Davis  hearing  of  it,  in- 
formed Kaumualii,  who  immediately 
went  on  board.  This  occurred  in  1809. 
Davis  dying  in  April,  1810,  his  death 
was  attributed  to  poison  administered 
by  the  disappointed  assassins. 

Kaumualii's  wife,  Kapuli,  better  known 
by  her  baptismal  name,  Deborah,  then 
young  and  attractive,  exercised  great  in- 
fluence over  his  mind.  This  occasion- 
ally gave  umbrage  to  the  government  at 
Oahu,  and  word  was  sent  him  to  put  her 
away;  but  paying  no  heed  to  it,  she  was 
suffered  to  remain  without  further  re- 
monstrance. The  chiefs  were  usually 
very  strict  with  their  females ;  but  Kau- 
mualii in  his  easy  nature  allowed  Ka- 
puli all  the  latitude  with  his  friends, 
that  the  most  ardent  disposition  could 
desire.  Kamehameha  put  to  death  a 
near  relative,  for  taking  improper  liber- 
ties with  his  favorite,  Kaahumanu. 

In  June,  1804,  Lisiansky,  in  the  Rus- 
sian discovery  ship  Neva,  arrived  at  Ha- 
waii. Young  was  then  governor,  and 
showed  him  many  civilities,  In  his  in- 
tercourse with  the  natives,  he  had  oc- 
casion to  perceive  the  extent  to  which 
the  king  undertook  to  regulate  trade. 
Certain  necessary  articles  could  only  be 
obtained  by  giving  in  exchange  bar-iron, 
of  which  he  was  greatly  in  want.  By 
such  restrictions  he  was  enabled  to  pro- 
vide himself  with  many  useful  things, 
which  the  whites  would  not  otherwise 
have  sold.  Lisiansky  found  the  knowl- 
edge of  prices  and  the  art  of  bargaining 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


91 


well  understood  among  all  classes,  but 
speaks  favorably  of  their  honesty  and 
friendly  behavior.  The  value  of  dollars 
was  well  known,  and  trade  generally 
had  assumed  more  the  character  of  reg- 
ular mercantile  transactions.  Lisiansky 
departed  without  seeing  Kamehameha. 

The  majority  of  merchant  vessels  that 
frequented  these  islands  at  this  period, 
were  from  Boston  ;  like  the  savages  of 
the  Northwest  Coast,  the  islanders 
spoke  ot  Americans  generally  as  Bos- 
tonians,  and  regarded  them  with  great 
favor.  On  the  23d  of  January,  1803, 
the  first  horse  was  landed  from  a  Boston 
vessel ;  its  mettle  and  beauty  created 
mingled  terror  and  admiration ;  but  the 
arrival  of  others  from  California,  not 
long  after,  made  them  soon  cease  to  be 
objects  of  curiosity.  Kamehameha  be- 
came the  fortunate  possessor  of  several, 
and  was  fond  of  displaying  his  horse- 
manship. 

At  this  time  an  attempt  was  made  to 
convince  him  of  the  truth  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith.*  After  listening  to  the  argu- 
ments, which,  unfortunately,  were  not 
skillfully  adduced,  or  so  arranged  as  to 
appear  in  the  most  favorable  light  to  his 
thinking  mind,  he  replied,  "  by  faith  in 
your  God,  you  say  anything  can  be  ac- 
complished, and  the  Christian  will  be 
preserved  from  all  harm.  If  so,  cast 
yourself  down  from  yonder  precipice, 
and  if  you  are  preserved,  1  will  believe." 

Some  Botany  Bay  convicts  having 
made  their  escape  to  Oahu,  were  re- 
ceived into  the  service  of  the  king,  and 
small  allotments  of  land  given  them,  on 
which  they  raised  sugar-cane,  and  con- 
trived a  still  to  manufacture  ardent  spir- 
its. .N  eglect  of  work,  riots  and  quarrels 
soon  followed.  Kamehameha  at  first 
remonstrated  with  them,  but  his  leniency 
produced  no  effect.  They  finally  mal- 
treated some  natives,  when  he  sent  them 
word  that  at  their  next  drinking  and 
fighting  bout  he  would  be  present.  This 
hint  humbled  them  at  once.  It  was  from 
this  worthless  class  of  whites  that  the 
natives  derived  the  greatest  injury. 

In  addition  to  the  useful  articles  of 
foreign  manufacture,  such  as  cloths  and 
hardware,  which  were  greatly  in  de- 
mand, navigators,  in  accordance  with 

*  Cleveland's  Voyages,  vol.  1,  p.  229. 


the  spirit  of  the  day,  traded  in  rum. 
Fortunately  for  the  nation,  it  was  in 
general  monopolized  by  the  king,  who 
would  occasionally  join  in  a  revel  with 
his  wives  and  favorites.  The  disputes 
which  arose,  in  consequence  of  too  great 
indulgence  among  the  women,  afforded 
the  chiefs  whose  heads  were  more  po- 
tent, much  amusement.  Kamehameha 
was  quite  regular,  though  not  intem- 
perate in  his  potations.  His  subjects 
acquired  a  fondness  for  its  use,  which, 
however,  during  his  reign,  was  duly  re- 
strained. Peace  being  now  universal, 
munitions  of  war  had  lost  their  former 
value. 

Kamehameha  was  desirous  of  procur- 
ing an  anvil  which  he  had  noticed  on 
board  of  a  ship.  It  was  given  hirn,  upon 
condition  of  his  divers  bringing  it  up 
from  ten  fathoms  water.  To  this  he 
agreed;  the  anvil  was  thrown  overboard, 
and  the  divers  descended;  but  its  weight 
proved  too  great  for  their  utmost  exer- 
tions. Unwilling  to  abandon  the  prize, 
they  rolled  it  along,  at  the  bottom  of  the 
harbor,  rising  occasionally  for  breath,  and 
alternately  relieving  each  other,  until  it 
reached  the  beach  half  a  mile  distant. 

So  favorable  an  opinion  had  been 
formed  of  the  character  and  capabilities 
of  the  islanders,  and  of  the  good  influ- 
ence exerted  by  comparatively  unculti- 
vated white  settlers,  that  Turnbull,*  as 
early  as  1803,  suggested  the  speedy  es- 
tablishment of  missionaries  among  them. 
He  judged  the  situation  and  advantages 


*  John  Turnbull  was  supercargo  to  an  English  ship, 
•which  voyaged  extensively  in  the  Pacific,  between  180(1 
and  1804,  visiting  chiefly  the  Society  and  Hawaiian 
groups ;  an  interesting  account  of  which  is  to  be  found 
in  his  "  Voyage  around  the  World,"  published  at  Lon- 
don, and  reprinted  at  Philadelphia  in  1810.  He  was  a 
man  of  enlarged  and  humane  views.  Some  ot  his  opin- 
ions have  since  been  so  amply  fulfilled,  as  to  now  ap- 
pear almost  prophetical.  Of  the  Americans  he  writes, 
"  they  will  do  more  than  any  others  to  exalt  them  - 
the  Hawaiian  Islands— to  a  singular  degTee  of  civiliza- 
tion." Pa^e  125. 

He  foresaw  the  evils  which  would  originate  from  the 
introduction  of  ardent  spirits,  and  thus  strongly  ex- 
presses himself:  "I  know  no  sufficient  punishment 
that  the  wretch  would  merit  who  should  import  a  cargo 
of  spirituous  liquors  into  the  Sandwich  or  Society  Isl- 
ands ;  it  would  in  every  respect  be  tantamount  to  the 
willful  administration  of  an  equal  quantity  of  poison.'' 
Page  148.  A  bold  and  ingenuous  sentiment  at  an 
epoch  when  the  baneful  trade  was  not  only  legalized, 
but  encouraged  by  all  classes.  Kamehameha  was  so 
fully  persuaded  of  the  evil,  that,  although  he  permitted 
its  importation,  and  allowed  it  to  be  used  to  a  certain 
extent  by  his  followers,  he  tabooed,  shortly  before  his 
death,  all  stills  within  his  own  kingdom.  Not  a  drop 
of  any  kind  was  allowed  to  be  manufactured  ;  and  any 
infringement  of  this  law  was  visited  by  a  forfeiture  or 
dsstruction  oi  the  delinquent's  property. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


as  infinitely  superior  to  the  field  occu- 
pied by  his  countrymen  at  Tahiti.  The 
suggestion,  however,  fell  upon  unwilling 
ears,  and  America  was  left  afterward  to 
reap  the  rich  reward  of  disinterested  be- 
nevolence. The  number  of  natives  who 
had  been  in  foreign  countries,  acquired 
the  English  tongue,  and  had  become 
partially  weaned  from  their  supersti- 
tions, rendered  the  enterprise  most  fa- 
vorable. The  greatest  obstacle  would 
have  been  the  strong  religious  tenden- 
cies of  Kamehameha  himself;  but  could 
these  have  been  rightly  directed,  as  there 
is  little  doubt  they  might  have  been, 
they  would  have  exerted  an  activity  in 
the  cause  which  would  even  have  sur- 
passed the  late  efforts  of  Kaahumanu, 
who  gave  it  an  impetus  which  revolu- 
tionized the  nation.  As  it  was,  he  con- 
tinued his  devotions  to  his  idols  to  the 
last,  though  acknowledging  their  worth- 
lessness.  He  doubtless  viewed  the  sys- 
tem as  a  powerful  engine  of  government, 
and  more  of  politics  than  piety  mingled 
in  his  later  views.  His  stern  bigotry  did 
not  always  get  the  better  of  his  human- 
ity. A  boy  whom  he  loved,  was  doomed 
for  sacrifice  by  a  priest,  when  very  low, 
and  expected  to  die  on  a  day  sacred  to 
his  god.  A  crime  so  heinous  could  only 
be  obviated  by  an  earlier  death.  The 
priest  told  this  to  Kamehameha,  but  he 
sternly  ordered  him  to  bring  the  youth 
to  him.  By  his  care  he  recovered,  and 
ever  after  was  one  of  his  family. 

The  saliva  of  the  king  was  carefully 
preserved  in  a  spittoon,  around  the  edges 
of  which  were  set  the  teeth  of  his  ances- 
tors. If  his  enemies  got  possession  of 
any  of  it,  they  were  supposed  to  have 
the  power  to  occasion  his  death  by  sor- 
cery and  prayer. 

In  1809,  a  Russian  ship  arrived  at 
Honolulu,  having  on  board  Archibald 
Campbell,  a  sailor  who  had  been  ship- 
wrecked at  Sannack.  At  his  wish  he 
was  taken  into  the  service  of  the  king, 
in  which  he  remained  upwards  of  a 
year,  and  was  treated  with  much  kind- 
ness, and  had  a  farm  given  him.  His 
narrative*  was  subsequently  published, 
and  contains  many  interesting  particu- 
lars of  the  domestic  life  of  Kamehameha, 


*  Voyage  Round  the  World,  from  1806  to  1812,  by 
Archibald  Campbell.    12mo.    Edinburgh :  1*16. 


related  with  an  artlessness  which  attests 
their  truth.  He  speaks  in  grateful  term? 
of  the  friendship  received  "  from  all 
ranks,  from  my  much  honored  master, 
the  king,  down  to  the  lowest  native.*' 
He  states  that  Kamehameha  generally 
conformed  to  the  customs  of  his  own 
country  in  regard  to  food,  adopting  only 
such  articles  of  foreign  dress  as  were 
suitable  to  the  climate ;  although  on 
some  occasions  he  wore  a  uniform,  of 
which  he  had  a  number  of  beautiful 
suits.  The  whites  about  him  were  served 
more  in  accordance  with  their  civilized 
habits,  being  provided  with  plates,  knives 
and  forks.  In  March,  1S10,  Campbell 
left  for  England  in  the  whaler  Duke  of 
Portland,  Captain  Spence,  by  whom  Ka- 
mehameha sent  a  feather  cloak  to  the 
king  of  England,  with  a  dictated  letter, 
in  which  he  reminded  him  of  a  promise 
received  from  Vancouver,  that  a  man-of- 
war,  with  an  armament  of  brass  pieces, 
and  loaded  with  articles  of  European 
manufacture,  should  be  sent  him.  He 
expressed  his  regret  that  the  distance 
prevented  him  from  rendering  service  to 
him  in  his  wars,  and  assured  him  of  his 
regard.  Although  Kamehameha  learned 
to  converse  in  English  with  tolerable 
fluency,  he  never  acquired  the  art  of 
writing. 

Don  Francisco  de  Paula  Mann,  a.' 
Spaniard,  had  settled  many  years  be-L 
fore,  at  Oahu,  and  made  himself  useful 
by  the  attention  he  paid  to  agricultur* 
and  cattle.  He  introduced  many  plants, 
fruits  and  vegetables,  and  at  one  time 
he  was  in  the  confidence  of  the  king, 
being  employed  as  interpreter.  In  1S10, 
the  number  of  whites  on  Oahu  alone 
amounted  to  sixty ;  some  of  whom  were 
sober  and  industrious,  and  much  respect- 
ed by  the  chiefs ;  but  the  generality 
were  idle  and  dissolute,  held  in  restraint 
only  by  the  authority  of  the  king.  The 
number  of  half-breeds  was  considerable. 
This  unfortunate  class  received  little  at- 
tention from  their  parents,  and  grew  up 
in  vicious  ignorance.  Many  of  the  na- 
tives had  become  tolerable  carpenters, 
coopers,  blacksmiths  and  tailors. 

Kamehameha  by  his  trade  in  sandal- 
wood  and  pearls,  and  various  monopo- 
lies, acquired  considerable  wealth.  Hi? 
stores  of  European,  American  and  Chi- 


H13TOET  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


nese  goods  were  extensive  and  valuable. 
Arms  and  ammunition  he  possessed  in 
great  abundance,  and  his  coffers  were 
well  filled  with  dollars.  A  number  of 
small  houses,  erected  after  the  European 
manner,  had  been  built  for  him,  but  he 
preferred  the  straw  habitations  of  his 
country. 

Two  queens  composed  his  legitimate 
wives;  of  these  Kaahumanu  remained 
the  favorite,  no  one  except  her  husband 
daring  to  enter  her  presence  uncovered. 


She  was  inordinately  fond  of  ardent 
spirits,  and  frequently  drank  to  excess. 
A  daughter  was  born  to  him  in  1809, 
and  the  event  announced  by  a  salute  of 
sixteen  guns  from  the  battery  in  front  of 
his  residence.  On  this  occasion,  the 
queen  in  accordance  with  their  customs, 
retired  to  a  house  in  the  forest  for  ten 
days. 

Kamehameha  consorted  with  Kaahu- 
manu from  affection  and  with  Keopuo- 
lani  from  policy.  The  latter  might  be 


KAAHUMANU,  WIFE  OP  KAMEHAMEHA  I. 


termed  his  official  wife.  The  custom  of 
the  country  relative  to  the  royal  family, 
required  him  to  visit  her  monthly,  im- 
mediately after  her  purification,  of  which 
she  gave  him  notice.  In  marriages  of 
this  political  character,  the  royal  parties 
usually  lived  apart,  both  being  furnished 
with  partners  of  choice,  who  abode  con- 
stantly with  them.  In  this  sense  Hoa- 
pili  was  the  husband  of  Keopuolani,  by 
consent  of  Kamehameha.  When  he  vis- 
ited her  it  was  in  great  state,  and  if  by 
water,  in  a  canoe,  the  paddlers  of  which 
were  dressed  in  a  rude  uniform,  made  by 
winding  completely  around  their  bodies 
cloth  similar  to  that  of  their  malos.  Ka- 


mehameha always  treated  Keopuolani 
with  superior  deference,  as  of  the  most 
exalted  rank  in  the  kingdom.  Her  chil- 
dren, and  not  Kaahumanu's,  are  heirs  to 
the  throne.  When  the  queen  was  in 
labor,  the  king's  own  idol  was  brought 
immediately  into  the  room,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  which  the  child  was  required  to 
be  delivered.  Should  it  not  arrive  in 
season,  the  navel-string  remained  uncut 
until  it  was  brought  in,  which  done,  the 
child  was  considered  as  the  legitimate 
heir. 

Kekauluohi,  daughter  of  Kaiana,  th« 
late  premier,  was  one  of  the  wives  of 
Kamehameha,  having  been  educated  for 


94 


H1STOEY  OF  TEE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


him  when  a  child,  as  a  royal  virgin,  in 
the  greatest  seclusion  and  care.  After 
their  quasi  marriage  she  was  sedulously 
restrained  from  all  society,  and  diligently 
taught  the  genealogies  and  ancient  lore 
of  the  country.  Upon  his  death  she  be- 
came the  wife  of  his  son,  who,  however, 
provided  another  husband  for  her. 

Liholiho,  his  eldest  son,  was  born  of 
Keopuolani,  on  Hawaii,  in  1797.  Ka- 
mehameha,  to  establish  the  succession 
in  his  family,  in  1809  invested  him  with 
royal  honors,  by  which  he  became  enti- 
tled to  the  same  etiquette  as  himself, 
but  the  government  continued  in  its  cus- 
tomary routine.  The  prince  was  an  in- 
dolent, pleasure-loving  youth,  of  a  frank 
and  humane  disposition.  His  manners 
were  generally  dignified  and  agreeable  ; 
his  mind  inquisitive  and  memory  reten- 
tive. Circumstances  might  have  made 
him  worthy  of  his  parentage,  but  his 
high  station,  and  freedom  from  care, 
made  him  reckless  and  dissipated.  He 
was  fond  of  liquor,  but,  until  his  acces- 
sion to  the  throne,  was  under  the  same 
powerful  influence  which  held  all,  from 
the  highest  to  the  lowest,  in  complete 
thraldom. 

Kamehameha  remained  at  Oahu  nine 
years  ;  he  then  embarked  with  his  suite 
on  board  of  some  foreign  vessels,  and  ac- 
companied by  a  large  fleet  of  small  craft 
and  canoes,  sailed  for  Hawaii,  touching 
at  Lahaina,  Molokai  and  other  places, 
to  dispose  of  sandal-wood  and  other 
products,  which  had  been  collected  by 
Keeaumoku,  governor  of  that  portion  of 
his  dominions.  Kalaimoku  was  left  in 
charge  of  Oahu.  The  king  lived  at 
Hawaii,  principally  about  Kailua  and 
Kealakeakua,  until  his  death.  In  his 
hereditary  possessions  he  was  greatly 
revered.  During  a  famine,  he  labored 
for  his  own  food,  and  compelled  his  fol- 
lowers to  work  likewise.  The  spot  of 
land  which  he  tilled  is  pointed  out  to 
this  day  as  a  mark  of  his  benevolence. 
With  a  providence  unusual  to  his  na- 
tion, he  allowed  none  of  the  young  san- 
dal-wood to  be  cut,  observing  that  such 
wood  was  to  be  preserved  for  his  suc- 
cessors. Neither  would  he  permit  the 
birds  which  were  caught  for  their  feath- 
ers to  be  killed  ;  but  ordered  them  to  be 
set  free,  after  they  were  plucked  of  the 


few  that  were  wanted.  The  bird-catch- 
ers, writh  native  logic,  inquired  "who 
will  possess  the  birds  set  free  ?  you  are 
an  old  man."  He  replied,  new  feathers 
would  replace  those  plucked,  and  the 
birds  would  again  be  useful. 

Like  civilized  conquerors,  he  delight- 
ed equally  in  overcoming  obstacles  of 
nature  as  of  men.  Undertakings  which 
had  been  considered  impracticable  he  ac- 
complished. Some  of  the  most  conspic- 
uous and  extensive  heiaus,  fish-ponds, 
and  other  public  works,  were  erected  by 
him.  At  Halaula,  his  patrimonial  dis 
trict,  he  dug  through  a  ledge  of  stone 
from  a  perpendicular  height  of  one  hun- 
dred feet,  making  a  good  road  with  a 
gradual  descent  to  the  sea  side.  At 
another  spot,  he  endeavored  to  procure 
pure  water,  by  digging  through  the  sev- 
eral strata  of  lava ;  after  penetrating 
to  considerable  depth,  through  compact 
rock,  he  was  obliged  to  relinquish  the 
enterprise,  from  want  of  gunpowder  and 
suitable  tools.  At  Kiholo  is  another 
monument  of  his  enterprise,  in  a  fish- 
pond two  miles  in  circumference,  formed 
by  a  strong  stone  wall  built  across  a 
small  bay.  It  is  half  a  mile  long,  six  feet 
high  in  parts,  and  twenty  wide.  Sev- 
eral arches,  closely  guarded  by  strong 
wooden  stakes,  allow  egress  to  the  water, 
but  prevent  the  fish  from  escaping. 

In  1814,  a  ship  owned  by  Baranoff, 
the  governor  of  the  Russian  colony  at 
Sitka,  was  wrecked  at  Waimea,  Kauai; 
the  principal  part  of  the  cargo  was  saved, 
and  entrusted  to  the  care  of  Kaumualii 
for  the  owners.  In  1815,  the  .Russian 
governor  sent  a  German  physician,  by 
the  name  of  SchefTer,  to  take  possession 
of  the  wrecked  property.  He  arrived  at 
Kailua  in  the  American  ship  Isabella, 
Captain  Tyler,  bringing  with  him  a 
quantity  of  powder  and  clothing.  Ka- 
mehameha received  him  in  a  friendly 
manner,  and  sent  orders  to  Kaumualii 
to  deliver  the  property  into  his  charge. 
After  a  few  weeks  stay  at  Hawaii,  he 
sailed  for  Waimea,  Kauai,  landed  his 
goods,  built  a  house,  and  commenced 
trading.  Kaumualii  purchased  the  pow- 
der, and  some  other  articles,  for  sandal- 
wood.  Soon  after,  a  Russian  ship,  the 
Discovery,  arrived  with  thirty  Kodiack 
Indians,  a  part  of  whom  were  females, 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLASHS. 


95 


from  an  unsuccessful  search  for  a  seal 
island.  By  the  orders  of  the  governor 
of  Sitka,  these  Indians  were  left  with 
Dr.  Scheffer,  and  the  vessel  returned. 
In  the  meanwhile  two  Russian  vessels, 
the  ship  Myrtle,  Captain  Long,  and  a 
brig  with  an  American  captain,  arrived 
at  Honolulu.  Their  crews  numbered 
near  ninety  men.  They  immediately 
commenced  erecting  a  block-house  near 
the  water  side,  on  which  they  mounted 
a  few  guns  and  displayed  a  flag.  This 
aroused  the  fears  of  the  natives  and  the 
jealousy  of  foreigners,  and  word  was  im- 
mediately forwarded  to  Kamehameha. 
His  policy  under  such  a  suspicious  act 
on  the  part  of  foreign  power,  was  char- 
acteristic of  that  which  has  ever  since 
prevailed.  He  sent  Kalaimoku  to  Oahu 
with  the  following  judicious  orders  : 
"  Go  and  observe  the  conduct  of  the 
Russians,  but  be  slow  to  oppose  them. 
If  they  commit  outrage  upon  the  people, 
exhort  the  people  to  bear  it  patiently. 
Bear  ill-treatment  with  forbearance,  but 
be  ready,  notwithstanding,  in  case  of 
absolute  necessity,  to  make  a  firm  resist- 
ance." Immediately  upon  Kalaimoku's 
arrival,  the  vessels  sailed  for  Kauai, 
when  the  American  captain  having  quar- 
reled with  Scheffer,  who  was  agent  for 
both,  was  removed  Irom  the  command. 
The  vessels  were  ordered  to  the  Bay  of 
Hanalei,  on  the  north  side  of  the  island, 
where  they  remained  during  the  winter. 
The  doctor  built  a  slight  fort  on  a  cliff 
commanding  them,  and  had  a  few  can- 
nons mounted. 

Kaumualii  being  anxious  to  secure  his 
services,  in  superintending  the  building 
of  a  stone  fort  at  Waimea,  gave  him  the 
fertile  valley  of  Hanalei  and  other  valu- 
able tracts.  This  excited  his  cupidity, 
and  he  plotted  to  secure  the  whole  isl- 
and. He  presented  a  schooner,  with 
many  other  articles,  to  the  king,  and  in 
return,  it  is  said,  obtained  a  lease  of  the 
whole  island  for  a  long  period.  The  fort 
was  sufficiently  completed  to  mount  a 
number  of  guns  on  one  side ;  a  maga- 
zine was  built,  and  a  flag-staff  erected, 
on  which  the  Russian  colors  were  occa- 
sionally displayed. 

According  to  the  natives,  Scheffer  laid 
a  plot  to  cut  off  Kaumualii  and  his  chief 
men,  at  a  feast  to  which  he  had  invited 


them.  The  American  captain  revealed 
it  to  the  king,  who,  however,  attended, 
with  the  precaution  of  a  guard  sufficient 
to  prevent  any  nefarious  attempt.  Noth- 
ing transpired  to  confirm  the  report. 
Scheffer  made  himself  obnoxious  by  his 
arbitrary  conduct,  and  reports  were  car- 
ried to  Kamehameha  that  the  Russians 
were  preparing  to  invade  his  dominions, 
and  had  already  obtained  possession  of 
Kauai.  Much  alarmed,  he  sent  word 
to  Kaumualii  to  drive  them  away.  Ac- 
cordingly, Scheffer  was  compelled  to  em- 
bark with  his  Indians  without  delay,  on 
board  of  the  brig,  which  was  at  Waimea. 
The  next  day  his  property  was  taken  off 
to  him.  He  then  sailed  for  Hanalei,  re- 
joined the  ship,  and  both  left  for  Hono- 
lulu. Upon  arriving  here  he  was  re- 
quested to  depart,  which  he  did,  but 
the  Myrtle  proving  unseaworthy  obliged 
him  to  put  back.  She  was  condemned 
at  Honolulu,  and  the  Russians  allowed 
to  remain  until  an  opportunity  offered 
for  leaving.* 

The  acts  of  Scheffer,  which  seem  to 
have  had  no  other  origin  than  a  desire 
for  his  own  aggrandizement,  with  the 
hope  of  being  ultimately  supported  by 
the  Russian  governor,  or  perhaps  the 
government,  created  a  very  unfavorable 
opinion  towards  the  Russians  through- 
out the  group.  Apprehensive  of  further 
attempts,  the  king  caused  guards  to  be 
stationed  along  the  coast  of  Hawaii, 
with  directions  to  resist  any  attempt  at 
landing.  The  Diana,  a  Russian  sloop- 
of-war,  arrived  soon  after  at  Waimea, 
made  some  inquiries  concerning  Schef- 
fer, purchased  supplies,  and  then  left. 

Captain  Kotzebue,  in  the  Russian  dis- 
covery ship  Rurick,  arrived  off  Hawaii, 
November  21,  1816.  He  soon  learned 
of  the  hostile  feeling  towards  his  coun- 
trymen, which  at  first  placed  him  in 
some  jeopardy.  He  assured  the  island- 
ers of  the  kind  intentions  of  his  emperor, 
and  that  Scheffer's  conduct  was  the  re- 
sult of  his  own  private  ambition,  and 
was  neither  countenanced  nor  approved 

*  Robert  Greenhow,  in  his  historical  memoir,  gives 
a  most  singular  and  erroneous  account  of  this  affair, 
but  does  not  name  his  authority.  He  states  that  one 
hundred  Aleutians,  sent  by  Baranoff,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Dr.  Scheffer,  ravaged  the  island  of  Kauai  for 
one  year,  without  subduing  it;  they  were  then  obliged 
to  leave  for  Hawaii,  where  they  entered  the  service  of 
some  American  whalers,  &c.  Page  149.  For  the  cor- 
rect particulars,  ?ee  Hawaiian  Spectator,  vol.  1,  p.  21i>. 


96 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


by  his  government.  These  representa- 
tions satisfied  Kamehameha,  and  when 
the  Rurick  anchored  at  Kealakeakua,  he 
received  him  with  his  customary  court- 
esy and  hospitality.  He  excused  him- 
self from  visiting  on  board,  by  alleging 
the  fears  of  his  subjects,  whose  appre- 
hensions were  not  entirely  allayed. 

Kotzebue  visited  him  at  his  palace, 
and  there  met  with  Liholiho  and  Kaa- 
humanu,  who  made  many  inquiries  after 
Vancouver.  He  remarked  the  general 
use  of  tobacco,  which  was  carried  to 
such  excess,  from  inhaling  its  fumes,  as 
to  produce  partial  derangement,  intox- 
ication, and  often  death.  Even  young 
children  indulged  in  the  pernicious  prac- 
tice. 

The  Rurick  was  supplied  with  stores 
and  refreshments  gratuitously;  in  ac- 
knowledgment for  which,  Kotzebue  gave 
Kamehameha  two  brass  field-pieces, 
wire,  and  iron  bars,  which  were  highly 
acceptable.  He  then  sailed  for  Hono- 
lulu, and  the  Rurick  was  the  first  man- 
of-war  that  entered  that  harbor.  Con- 
siderable excitement  existed  in  regard 
to  his  intentions,  which,  however,  sub- 
sided when  Kalaimoku  made  known  the 
king's  commands.  Two  fine  vessels 
bore  the  national  flag,  which  had  been 
adopted  shortly  before  ;  they  displayed 
the  English  union,  with  seven  alternated 
red,  white  and  blue  stripes,  emblematic 
of  the  principal  islands.  One  was  a 
ship,  newly  purchased,  destined  for 
China,  with  a  cargo  of  sandal-wood, 
and  the  other  a  war-brig,  the  Kaahu- 
manu,  of  eighteen  guns,  commanded  by 
an  Englishman,  of  the  name  of  Adams. 
Wishing  to  survey  the  harbor,  Kotzebue 
placed  flags  upon  several  different  sta- 
tions ;  the  sight  of  them  reminded  the 
natives  of  Scheffer's  acts,  when  he  hoist- 
ed the  Russian  flag,  and  these  were 
supposed  to  have  been  planted  with  a 
like  intention.  A  commotion  arose  which 
would  have  proved  dangerous  to  the 
surveying  party,  had  not  Young,  who 
then  lived  on  the  island,  overseeing  the 
erection  of  the  present  fort,  explained 
the  cause,  and  substituted  brooms  for 
the  obnoxious  ensigns.  Clothes  were 
much  in  demand  at  this  time  among  the 
chiefs,  and  their  costume  presented  the 
same  ludicrous  mixture  of  barbarism 


and  civilization  that  exists  among  th« 
poorer  classes  at  the  present  time.  A 
lance  fight  was  exhibited  for  the  grati- 
fication of  Kotzebue,  which  terminated 
in  dangerous  wounds  to  some  of  the 
party.  The  passions  of  the  combatants, 
so  long  unexercised  in  war,  on  these  oc- 
casions were  apt  to  become  exasperated, 
and  the  mock  battles  to  terminate  in 
furious  and  bloody  encounters.  Kame- 
hameha seldom  allowed  them  to  take 
place,  and  then  only  under  a  guard  of 
soldiers  armed  with  muskets.  On  the 
14th  of  December,  the  Rurick  sailed  ; 
she  was  the  first  national  ship  that  ex- 
changed salutes  with  the  batteries  of 
Honolulu. 

An  attempt  was  made  to  cement  an 
alliance  between  the  royal  families  of 
Hawaii  and  Tahiti,  by  a  double  mar- 
riage. Gifts  and  friendly  messages  had 
been  frequently  exchanged  between  Po- 
mare  I.  and  Kamehameha,  and  finally  it 
was  agreed  that  a  son  of  each  should 
marry  a  daughter  of  the  other.  Kekau- 
luohi  was  selected  for  Pomare,  but  his 
death  broke  off  the  matches,  and  the 
project  was  never  resumed.  Earlier 
than  this,  Kaumualii  sent  an  agent  to 
Tahiti,  in  a  foreign  ship,  to  negotiate 
with  the  reigning  family  for  a  wife  for 
himself;  but  the  man  proved  unfaithful 
to  his  trust,  and  seduced  by  the  well 
favored  beauties  of  that  island,  settled 
there. 

On  March  17th,  1814,  Kauikeaouli, 
the  present  king,  was  born.  Nahiena- 
ena,  the  princess,  was  born  about  two 
years  later  of  the  same  mother,  Keopuo- 
lani ;  so  that  their  rank,  and  that  of  Li- 
holiho, was  derived  equally  from  the  past 
and  reigning  dynasties ;  consequently, 
by  descent  and  conquest,  they  were  heirs 
to  the  throne  of  the  united  kingdom. 

Kamehameha  had  made  some  over- 
tures toward  opening  a  direct  trade  with 
the  governor  of  the  Russian  settlements, 
in  the  early  part  of  his  reign.  However, 
but  little  resulted  from  them.  Sandal- 
wood  had  now  become  the  great  article 
of  export,  amounting  in  one  year  to  near 
four  hundred  thousand  dollars.  While 
it  lasted,  it  was  a  mine  of  wealth  to  the 
chiefs  ;  but  it  engendered  luxury  and 
extravagance ;  and  many  rich  cargoes 
were  purchased  at  the  cost  of  great 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


97 


labor  and  heavy  taxation.  They  were 
frequently  stored  in  unsuitable  build- 
ings, and  there  perished  from  neglect. 
Kamehameha,  learning  of  the  great 
profits  derived  by  the  merchants  from 
their  sales  in  China,  determined  to  pros- 
ecute the  business  on  his  own  account; 
accordingly  he  fitted  up  the  ship  before 
mentioned,  loaded  her  with  the  wood, 
and  under  the  direction  of  English  offi- 
cers, and  a  native  supercargo,  Kapihe, 
despatched  her  for  Canton  ;  the  first  for- 
eign port  in  which  the  Hawaiian  flag  was 
displayed.  Extravagant  port  charges, 
and  the  dissipation  of  the  captain  and 
supercargo,  ran  away  with  the  proceeds 
of  the  sales.  She  returned  safely,  but 
in  lieu  of  the  riches  of  the  Celestial  em- 
pire, the  king  found  himself  three  thou- 
sand dollars  in  debt.  The  chief  items 
of  charges  were  pilotage,  anchorage,  and 
custom-house  dues.  This  suggested  to 
him  the  idea  of  raising  a  revenue  in  the 
same  manner,  and  from  that  time  harbor 
fees  wTere  established. 

Though,  toward  the  latter  period  of 
Kamehameha's  reign,  a  general  laxness 
in  regard  to  the  taboos  began  to  prevail, 
yet  every  open  transgression  was  se- 
verely punished.  A  woman  was  put  to 
death  for  entering  the  eating  house  of 
her  husband,  though  at  the  time  she 
was  tipsy.  As  late  as  1818,  three  men 
were  sacrificed  at  Kealakeakua ;  one 
for  putting  on  the  malo  of  a  chief,  an- 
other for  eating  a  forbidden  article,  and 
the  third  for  leaving  a  house  that  was 
taboo  and  entering  one  that  was  not. 

Kamehameha  resided  at  Kailua  seven 
years.  The  changes  which  had  occurred 
at  Tahiti,  by  the  final  triumph  of  the 
Christian  religion,  aroused  his  attention, 
and  he  made  many  inquiries  in  regard 
to  the  causes  and  results.  He  desired 
to  be  instructed  in  the  doctrines,  and  to 
learn  of  the  nature  of  the  Supreme 
Being  the  foreigners  worshiped.  Unfor- 
tunately, the  whites  around  him  were 
little  calculated  to  explain  the  sublime 
truths,  or  to  tell  him  of  the  heavenly 
tidings  of  the  Gospel. 

On  the  8th  of  May,  1819,  at  the  age 
of  sixty-six,  he  died  as  he  had  lived,  in 
the  faith  of  his  country.  It  was  his  mis- 
fortune not  to  have  come  in  contact  with 
men  who  could  have  rightly  influenced 
13 


his  religious  aspirations.  Judged  by  his 
advantages,  and  compared  with  the 
most  eminent  of  his  countrymen,  he 
may  be  justly  styled  not  only  great,  but 
good.  To  this  day  his  memory  warms 
the  heart  and  elevates  the  national  feel- 
ings of  Hawaiians.  They  are  proud  of 
their  old  warrior-king ;  they  love  his 
name  ;  his  deeds  form  their  historical 
age ;  and  an  enthusiasm  everywhere 
prevails,  shared  even  by  foreigners  who 
knew  his  worth,  that  constitutes  the 
firmest  pillar  of  the  throne  of  his  son. 

In  lieu  of  human  victims,  a  sacrifice 
of  three  hundred  dogs  attended  his  ob- 
sequies ;  no  mean  holocaust,  when  their 
national  value  is  considered.  The  bones 
of  Kamehameha,  after  being  kept  for  a 
while,  were  so  carefully  concealed  that 
all  knowledge  of  their  final  resting  place 
is  now  lost.  There  was  a  proverb  cur- 
rent among  the  common  people  that  the 
bones  of  a  cruel  king  could  not  be  hid ; 
they  made  fish-hooks  and  arrows  of 
them,  upon  which  in  using  them  they 
vented  their  abhorrence  of  his  memory 
in  bitter  execrations. 

The  native  historians  relate  the  cir- 
cumstances of  his  death  with  a  feeling 
and  minuteness,  which  so  well  illustrates 
many  of  their  customs,  that  the  reader 
will  pardon  the  insertion. 

"  When  Kamehameha  was  dangerously  sick  and 
the  priests  were  unable  to  cure  him,  they  said,  '  Be  of 
good  courage,  and  build  a  house  for  the  god,  that  thou 
mayest  recover.'  The  chiefs  corroborated  this  advice 
of  the  priests,  and  a  place  of  worship  was  prepared  for 
Kukailimoku,  and  consecrated  in  the  evening.  They 
proposed  also  to  the  king,  with  a  view  to  prolong  his 
life,  that  human  victims  should  be  sacrificed  to  his 
deity ;  upon  which  the  greater  part  of  the  people  ab- 
sconded through  fear  of  death,  and  concealed  them- 
selves in  hiding  places  till  the  kapu,  in  which  destruc- 
tion impended,  was  past.  It  is  doubtful  whether  Ka- 
mehameha approved  of  the  plan  of  the  chiefs  and 
priests  to  sacrifice  men,  as  he  was  known  to  say,  '  The 
men  are  sacred  for  the  king ; '  meaning  that  they  were 
for  the  service  of  his  successor.  This  information  was 
derived  from  his  son,  Liholiho. 

"  After  this,  his  sickness  increased  to  such  a  degree 
that  he  had  not  strength  to  turn  himself  in  his  bed. 
When  another  season,  consecrated  for  worship  at  the 
new  temple — heiau — arrived,  he  said  to  his  son  Liho- 
liho, '  Go  thou  and  make  supplication  to  thy  god ;  I 
am  not  able  to  go  and  will  otter  my  prayers  at  home.' 
When  his  devotions  to  his  feathered  god,  Kukailimoku, 
were  concluded,  a  certain  religiously  disposed  individ- 
ual, who  had  a  bird  god,  suggested  to  the  king  that 
through  its  influence  his  sickness  might  be  removed. 
The  name  of  this  god  was  Pua ;  its  body  was  made  of 
a  bird,  now  eaten  by  the  Hawaiians,  and  called  in  their 
language  alae.  Kamehameha  was  willing  that  a  trial 
should  be  made,  and  two  houses  were  constructed  to 
facilitate  the  experiment ;  but  while  dwelling  in  them, 
he  became  so  very  weak  as  not  to  receive  food.  After 
lying  there  three  days,  his  wives,  children,  and  chiefs, 
perceiving  that  he  was  very  low,  returned  him  to  his 
own  house.  In  the  evening  he  was  carried  to  the  eat- 
ing house,  where  he  took  a  little  food  in  his  mouth, 
which  he  did  not  swallow ;  also  a  cup  of  water.  The 


98 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


chiefs  requested  him  to  give  them  his  counsel.  But  he 
made  no  reply,  and  was  carried  back  to  the  dwelling 
house ;  but  when  near  midnight,  ten  o'clock,  perhaps, 
he  was  earned  again  to  the  place  to  eat ;  but,  as  be- 
fore, he  merely  tasted  of  what  was  presented,  to  him. 
Then  Kaikioewa  addressed  him  thus :  '  Here  we  all 
are,  your  younger  brethren,  your  son,  Liholiho,  and 
your  foreigner :  impart  to  us  your  dying  charge,  that 
Liholiho  and  Kaahumanu  may  hear.'  Then  Kameha- 
meha  inquired,  '  What  do  you  say  ! '  Kaikioewa  re- 
peated, 'Your  counsels  for  us.'  He  then  said,  'Move 

on  in  my  good  way,  and .'    He  could  proceed  no 

further.  The  foreigner— Mr.  Young— embraced  and 
kissed  him.  Hoapili  also  embraced  him,  whispering 
something  in  his  ear,  after  which  he  was  taken  back  to 
the  house.  About  twelve,  he  was  carried  once  more  to 
the  house  for  eating,  into  which  his  head  entered,  while 
his  body  was  in  the  dwelling  house  immediately  ad- 
joining. It  should  be  remarked,  that  this  frequent 
carrying  of  a  sick  chief  to  and  fro  from  one  house  to 
another,  resulted  from  the  taboo  system  then  in  force. 
There  were  at  that  time  six  houses  connected  with  an 
establishment ;  one  was  for  worship,  one  for  the  men 
to  eat  in,  another  for  the  women,  a  dormitory,  a  house 
in  which  to  beat  kapa,  and  one  where  at  certain  inter- 
vals the  women  might  dwell  in  seclusion. 

"  The  sick  king  was  once  more  taken  to  his  house, 
when  he  expired ;  this  was  at  two  o'clock — a  circum- 
stance from  which  Leleiohoku  derived  his  name.  As 
he  breathed  his  last  Kalaimoku  came  to  the  eating 
house  to  order  those  in  it  to  go  out.  There  were  two 
aged  persons  thus  directed  to  depart ;  one  went,  the 
other  remained  on  account  of  love  to  the  king,  by  whom 
he  had  formerly  been  kindly  sustained.  The  children 
also  were  sent  away.  Then  Kalaimoku  came  to  the 
house,  and  the  chiefs  had  a  consultation.  One  of  them 
spoke  thus  :  '  This  is  my  thought,  we  will  eat  him  raw.' 
Kaahumanu  replied,  'Perhaps  his  body  is  not  at  our 
disposal;  that  is  more  properly  with  his  successor. 
Our  part  in  him — the  breath — has  departed;  his  re- 
mains will  be  disposed  of  by  Liholiho.' 

"After  this  conversation,  the  body  was  taken  into 
the  consecrated  house  for  the  performance  of  the  proper 
rites  by  the  priest  and  the  king.  The  name  of  this  cer- 
emony is  uko  ;  and  when  the  sacred  hog  was  baked, 
the  priest  offered  it  to  the  dead  body  and  it  became  a 
god,  the  king  at  the  same  time  repeating  the  custom- 
ary prayers. 

"  Then  the  priest  addressing  himself  to  the  king  and 
chiefs,  said,  '  I  will  now  make  known  to  you  the  rules 
to  be  observed  respecting  persons  to  be  sacrificed  on  the 
burial  of  this  body.  If  you  obtain  one  man  before  the 
corpse  is  removed,  one  will  be  sufficient ;  but  after  it 
leaves  this  house  four  will  be  required.  If  delayed 
until  we  carry  the  corpse  to  the  grave,  there  must  be 
ten  ;  but  after  it  is  deposited  in  the  grave,  there  must 
be  fifteen.  To-morrow  moining  there  will  be  a  taboo, 
and  if  the  sacrifice  be  delayed  until  that  time,  forty 
men  must  die.' 

"  Then  the  high  priest  Hewahewa,  inquired  of  the 
chiefs,  <  Where  shall  be  the  residence  of  King  Liho- 
liho 1 '  They  replied,  '  Where,  indeed  ?  you  of  all  men 
ought  to  know.'  Then  the  priest  observed,  '  There  are 
two  suitable  places ;  one  is  Kau,  the  other,  Kohala.' 
The  chiefs  preferred  the  latter,  as  it  was  more  thickly 
inhabited.  The  priest  added,  '  These  are  proper  places 
for  the  king's  residence,  but  he  must  not  remain  in 
Kona,  for  it  is  polluted.'  This  was  agreed  to.  It  was 
now  break  of  day.  As  he  was  being  carried  to  the 
place  of  burial,  the  people  perceived  that  their  king 
was  dead,  and  they  wailed.  When  the  corpse  was  re- 
moved from  the  house  to  the  tomb,  a  distance  of  one 
chain,  the  procession  was  met  by  a  certain  man  who 
was  ardently  attached  to  the  deceased.  He  leaped 
upon  the  chiefs  who  were  carrying  the  king's  body ;  he 
desired  to  die  with  him,  on  account  of  his  love.  The 
chiefs  drove  him  away.  He  persisted  in  making  numer- 
ous attempts,  which  were  unavailing.  His  name  was 
Keamahulihia.  Kalaimoku  also  had  it  in  his  heart  to 
die  with  him,  but  was  prevented  by  Hookio. 

"  The  morning  following  Kamehameha's  death,  Li- 
holiho and  his  train  departed  for  Kohala  according  to 
the  suggestions  of  the  priest,  to  avoid  the  defilement 
occasioned  by  the  dead.  At  this  time,  if  a  chief  died 
the  land  was  polluted,  and  the  heirs  sought  a  residence 
in  another  part  of  the  country,  until  the  corpse  was 
dissected  and  the  bones  tied  in  a  bundle,  which  being 
done,  the  season  of  defilement  terminated.  If  the  de- 
ceased were  not  a  chief,  the  house  only  was  defiled, 
which  became  pure  again  on  the  burial  of  the  body. 
ISuch  were  the  laws  on  this  subject. 


"On  the  morning  in  which  Liholiho  sailed  in  his 
canoe  for  Kohala,  the  chiefs  and  people  mourned  after 
their  manner  on  occasion  of  a  chief's  death,  conducting 
like  madmen,  and  like  beasts.  Their  conduct  was  such 
as  to  forbid  description.  The  priests,  also,  put  into 
action  the  sorcery  apparatus,  that  the  person  who  had 
prayed  the  king  to  death  might  die ;  for  it  was  not  be- 
lieved that  Kamehameha's  departure  was  the  effect 
either  of  sickness  or  old  age.  When  the  sorcerers  set 
up  by  their  fire-places  sticks  with  a  strip  of  kapa  fly- 
ing at  the  top,  the  chief  Kceaumoku,  Kaahumanu's 
brother,  came,  in  a  state  of  intoxication,  and  broke  the 
flag-staff  of  the  sorcerers,  from  which  it  was  inferred 
that  Kaahumanu  and  her  friends  had  been  instru- 
mental in  the  death  of  Kamehameha.  On  this  account 
they  were  subjected  to  abuse." — Hawaiian  Spectator, 
vol.  2,  p.  227. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

1819— Consequences  of  the  death  of  Kamehameha— 
Scepticism— Occasion  of — Abolition  of  idolatry — N  a- 
tional  character — Rebellion  of  Kekuokalani — Defeat 
and  death — 1820 — Arrival  of  American  missionaries 
— Reception — Hostile  intrigues — Kindness  of  Kau- 
mualii— Of  foreigners— Tyranny  and  dissipation  of 
Liholiho — Gradual  improvement  of  Nation — Voyage 
of  Liholiho  to  Kauai,  July,  1821 — Kaumualii's  hos- 
pitality— Treachery  of  Liholiho — Keeaumoku  made 
governor  of  Kauai — Kaahumanu's  marriage  to  Kau- 
mualii  and  his  son — First  Church  erected  at  Hono- 
lulu —  Increased  taxation  —  January,  1822  —  First 
printing  at  the  islands — State  of  education — Arrival 
of  English  deputation — Results — Present  of  armed 
schooner  —  First  Christian  marriage  —  Hoapili  ap- 
pointed governor  of  Maui — New  missionaries— In- 
creasing favor  of  government  — 1823  —  Festival  in 
honor  of  Kamehameha — Illness  and  death  of  Keopu- 
olani — Foreign  hostility  to  missions — Marriage  of 
Hoapili — Liholiho  and  train  embark  for  England, 
1824— Death  of  Kaumualii— Rebellion  at  Kauai— 
Final  subjugation — Last  heathen  sacrifice  performed 
by  one  of  the  royal  family— 1824— Conversion  of  Ka- 
laimoku and  Kaahumanu— Character  of  their  ad- 
ministration— News  of  the  death  of  the  king — Ar- 
rival of  British  Consul  and  family,  April,  1825. 

BY  the  death  of  Kamehameha,  the 
key-stone,  which  had  continued  firmly 
to  unite  the  rites  of  heathenism  with  the 
policy  of  government,  was  removed,  and 
the  fabric  gave  evidence  of  speedy  ruin. 
The  scepticism  which  pervaded  all  ranks 
became  manifest ;  none  had  a  more 
hearty  desire  to  be  rid  of  the  absurd  re- 
straints of  their  pagan  ceremonies  than 
the  new  king,  Liholiho.  The  foreign- 
ers, whom  he  had  gathered  in  his  train, 
had  succeeded  in  infusing  their  infidel- 
ity into  his  mind,  without  giving  him 
any  correct  principles  for  the  foundation 
of  a  new  belief.  In  his  love  of  sensual 
gratification,  disregard  of  customs  and 
traditions  sanctioned  by  usage  immemo- 
rial, desire  yet  fear  of  change,  and  igno- 
rance of  the  means  of  accomplishment, 
he  embodied  the  general  spirit  of  his 
nation.  The  utter  worthlessness  of  their 
old  system  and  consequent  evils  were 
apparent  to  all,  and  its  downfall  ardently 
desired. 


HISTORY  vF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


99 


This  condition  of  the  public  sentiment 
necessarily  resulted  from  their  commer- 
cial relations  with  foreigners.  Those 
who  railed  at  the  doctrines  of  Christian- 
ity, were  not  wholly  devoid  of  its  spirit 
in  their  acts.  Exposed  as  they  were  in 
manhood  to  the  pernicious  influences  of 
a  licentious  heathenism  and  unfettered 
by  a  public  moral  sentiment,  they  too 
frequently  fell  in  with  the  gross  practices 
about  them,  and  gave  free  rein  to  their 
lusts  and  avarice.  Yet  even  with  such, 
the  good  seed  implanted  by  parents' 
counsels  and  the  habits  of  Christian 
lands  occasionally  took  root,  and  threw 
out  blossoms  which  in  contrast  with  the 
general  fruit  of  paganism  were  sweet 
and  attractive. 

From  what  has  been  exhibited  of  na- 
tive character  previous  to  the  commence- 
ment of  intercourse  with  whites,  it  will 
readily  be  admitted  that  it  was  degraded 
in  the  extreme.  Consequently  the  con- 
tact of  a  better  race  must  necessarily 
cause  some  moral  improvement.  That 
this  was  the  case,  the  condition  of  the 
Hawaiian  nation  at  this  epoch,  plainly 
shows.  The  influence  operating  upon 
them  had  been  directly  commercial,  dic- 
tated by  the  keenest  self-interest ;  yet 
religious  ideas  and  a  desire  for  knowl- 
edge had  been  incidentally  developed, 
by  example  or  advice  of  benevolent  indi- 
viduals. The  very  fruits  of  civilization 
displayed  to  their  covetous  eyes  in  the 
superior  knowledge,  and  above  all  in  the 
property  of  the  whites,  begot  in  them  a 
respect  and  desire  for  the  faith  which  to 
their  minds  teemed  so  rich  in  temporal 
blessings.  Example,  expostulation  and 
judicious  reproof  did  much  for  the  Ha- 
waiians  ;  the  many  cases  where  the  di- 
rect influence  of  foreigners  was  exerted 
to  ameliorate  the  lot  of  savages,  and  to 
implant  a  desire  of  civilization,  cannot 
be  all  recorded.  Much  as  was  accom- 
plished in  this  way,  it  must  be  acknowl- 
edged the  result  was  small,  compared 
with  the  greater  influence  of  a  selfish- 
ness, which  cherished  order  and  enter- 
prise as  the  best  means  of  promoting  its 
own  interests. 

The  example  of  the  southern  groups, 
in  the  destruction  of  their  idols,  added 
to  the  spreading  disbelief.  Incontestible 
evidences  of  the  falsity  of  their  oracles, 


together  with  the  increasing  inconveni- 
ence of  their  absurd  rites,  confirmed  the 
scepticism.  Those  interested  in  the  con- 
tinuance of  paganism,  redoubled  their 
efforts;  threats,  prophecies  and  promises 
were  freely  uttered,  and  as  freely  falsi- 
fied by  their  own  failure.  Like  Lao- 
coon  and  his  offspring  in  the  folds  of  the 
serpent,  heathenism  writhed  and  gasped, 
each  moment  growing  weaker  in  the 
strangling  embrace  of  public  opinion.  It 
was  noticed  that  foreigners  conformed 
to  none  of  their  rites,  yet  they  lived  and 
prospered ;  their  own  countrymen  who 
had  gone  abroad,  lived  in  equal  disre- 
gard of  their  ritual,  and  with  like  im- 
punity. Individually,  their  memories 
convicted  them  of  frequently  breaking 
taboos,  yet  no  evil  overtook  them,  while 
they  were  unknown  to  the  priests.  Men 
and  women  had  eaten  together,  and  ol 
forbidden  food;  the  predicted  judgments 
slept ;  their  priests  must  be  as  the  for- 
eigners described  them,  liars,  and  the 
taboo  system  altogether  foolish  and  con- 
I  temptible.  Drunken  chiefs  had  often 
1  violated  the  most  sacred  injunctions ;  no 
divine  vengeance  pursued  them  ;  the  fe- 
male rulers  had  of  late  broken  through 
all  restrictions,  yet  prosperity  and  health 
were  still  theirs.  Female  influence  went 
far  to  induce  scepticism  among  the  men. 
Having  broken  through  the  taboos  them- 
selves, they  encouraged  others  to  do  the 
same;  and  in  this  way  the  conviction  of 
the  folly  of  supporting  an  oppressive  and 
corrupt  faith  for  the  benefit  of  a  few, 
daily  strengthened. 

The  young  prince  Kauikeaouli,  in- 
duced by  his  mother,  and  countenanced 
by  his  brother,  broke  the  taboo  by  eating 
with  Keopuolani.  Liholiho  perceiving 
no  evil  to  ensue,  remarked,  "It  is  well  to 
renounce  taboos,  and  for  husbands  and 
wives  to  eat  and  dwell  together,  there 
will  be  less  unfaithfulness  and  fraud." 
He  was  yet  undecided,  though  Kaahu- 
manu  urged  him  "  to  disregard  the  re- 
straint of  taboo."  On  the  very  day  ot 
Kamehameha's  death,  a  woman  eat  a 
cocoanut  with  impunity,  and  certain 
families  displayed  their  contempt  for 
these  laws  by  feasting  in  common. 

Liholiho  remained  ten  days  at  Kohala, 
while  the  body  of  his  father  was  being 
dissected.  He  then  returned  to  Kailua, 


100 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


and  on  the  second  day  after  his  arrival, 
the  chiefs  and  inhabitants  were  collected 
to  witness  his  induction  into  office.*  He 
appeared  in  great  state,  dressed  in  rich 
clothing,  with  a  feather  mantle  over  his 
shoulders,  and  surrounded  by  a  brilliant 

*  A  list  of  the  principal  chiefs  comprising  the  court 
of  Kamehameha  II.,  with  their  respective  ranks,  is 
necessary  clearly  to  understand  their  relative  situa- 
tions and  the  stations  they  ultimately  filled. 
Kamehameha  II.  (Liholiho)  king  of  all  ") 

the  group.  I    Keopuolani, 

Kauikeaouli,  his  younger  brother,         j  queen  mother. 
Nahienaena,  his  sister, 
Kaahumanu  (second  in  authority),  dowager  queen,  and 

guardian  of  the  kingdom. 

Kalakua  (Hoapili  wahine),  )  also  former  wives  of  Ka- 
Namahana,  j  mehameha  I. 

Kamamalu,  ^ 

Kinau,  |  queens  of  Liholiho.  The  first 

Kekauluohi,  or  Auhea,  }•  two  were  daughters  of  his 
Pauahi,  |  father  by  Kalakua. 

Kekauonqhi,  J 

Kaumualii,  king  of  Kauai  and  Niihau. 
Kealiiahonui,  his  son. 
Kapuli,  queen  of  Kauai. 
Kalaimoku  (William  Pitt),  originally  of  minor  rank, 

but  from  his  abilities  promoted  to  fill  the  highest 

stations.    He  was  prime  minister,  and,  next  to  the 

king,  the  most  influential  man  in  the  kingdom, 

though  in  authority  subordinate  to  Kaahumanu. 
Leleiohoku,  his  son. 
Kaikioewa,  guardian  of  the  prince. 
Keaweamahi,  his  wife. 
Hoapili,  guardian  of  JSTahienaena. 
Naine,  hereditary  counselor  and  national  orator. 
Kapiolani,  his  wife. 

1  These  two  were  sons  of 
Kuakini  (John  Adams),  gov-    Kamehameha's  famous  j 

ernor  of  Hawaii.  warrior  and  counselor 

Keeaumoku,  brothers  al-  | 
so  of  Kaahumanu,  Ka- 
lakua and  £>«  amahana  ; 
all  descended  from  the  ! 
j  royal  family  of  Maui. 
Bold,  governor  of  Oahu,  brother  of  Kalaimoku. 
Liliha,  his  wife. 
Wahinepio,  sister  of  Kalaimoku,  mother  of  the  queen 

Kekauonohi. 

Kahalaia,  her  son,  and  nephew  of  Kamehameha  I. 
Kapihe,  commander  of  the  king's  vessels. 
Kekuanaoa,  superintendent  of  sandal-  wood,  and  treas- 

urer to  the  king. 

,--,•          \  brothers  descended  from  the  last  king  of 
'  Maui>  and  S:lid  to  have  sPanish  blood  in 


Keeaumoku  (Cox),  governor 
of  Maui  and  its  dependencies 


'ahekili 


Ii, 

Laanui,      I  all  of  these  were  "punahele,"  or  bosom 
Puaa,         j  companions  of  the  king. 

Kalaikoa,  j 

Beside  these  names  the  chiefs  had  a  multitude  of 
others,  which  answered  for  titles.  They  were  frequently 
changed  or  assumed  for  trilling  circumstances.  The 
English  appellations  were  bestowed  by  visitors.  The 
Hawaiian  names  are  highly  figurative,  and  generally 
derived  from  some  particular  event  which  they  were 
desirous  of  commemorating.  Kamehameha  signified 
"  the  lonely  one  ;  "  Keopuolani,  "  the  gathering  of  the 
clouds  of  the  heavens  ;  "  Kauikeaouli,  "  hanging  in  the  I 
blue  sky  ;  "  Kamamalu,  "  the  shade  of  the  lonely  | 
one  ;  "  —  a  name  assumed  after  the  death  of  her  father  ;  i 
Hoapili,  "  close  adhering  companion,"  from  the  friend- 
ship which  existed  between  the  old  king  and  himself; 
Kaahumanu,  "the  feather  mantle  ;  "  Liliha,  "  the  fat 
of  hogs  ;  "  Auhea,  literally  "  where,"  from  her  mourn- 
ful repetition  of  this  word,  after  the  decease  of  Kame- 
hameha :  Kapiolani,  "  the  captive  of  heaven  ;  "  Kala- 
kua, "  the  way  of  the  gods  ;  "  Kahekili,  "  thunder  ;  " 
Paalua,  a  name  of  Kalaimoku's,  •'  twice  blind,"  ex- 
pressing his  grief  by  saying,  he  had  lost  his  eyes  for 
the  deaths  of  Kamehameha  and  a  favorite  wife.  Many 
of  these  nobles  were  remarkable  for  their  corpulency. 
Some  weighed  from  three  hundred  to  four  hundred 
pounds.  Others  were  of  herculean  s  tature  and  streng  th, 
and  well  proportioned. 


retinue.  The  kingdom  was  transferred 
to  him  by  Kaahumanu,  with  the  injunc- 
tion of  Kamehameha,  that  if  he  should 
not  conduct  himself  worthily,  the  su- 
preme power  should  devolve  upon  her. 
She  also  proclaimed  it  as  the  will  of  the 
late  king,  that  he  should  share  the  ad- 
ministration with  her,  to  which  he  as- 
sented. This  haughty  queen  dowager 
had  ahvays  retained  her  influence  over 
her  husband,  and  she  had  taken  the  pre- 
caution to  secure  to  herself  an  authority 
equal  to  the  king's,  to  the  exclusion  of 
the  more  legitimate  rights  of  Keopuo- 
lani. As  this  assumption  of  power  was 
universally  acquiesced  in,  it  must  have 
been  considered  the  true  exposition  of 
the  commands  of  the  deceased  sovereign. 
This  singular  feature  of  a  double  execu- 
tive has  been  retained,  though  modified, 
to  this  day,  and  the  powers  and  limita- 
tions of  both  defined  by  written  law. 
Neither  could  act  officially  without  the 
other ;  each  in  turn  being  a  check  or 
support  as  the  policy  of  the  government 
required ;  and  no  act  was  valid  without 
the  sanction  of  both.  This  is  an  anom- 
aly in  governments,  but  the  principle  is 
so  well  understood  and  recognized  by 
the  Hawaiians,  that  the  harmony  of  the 
kingdom  has  never  been  endangered. 
By  interest  and  blood,  these  personages 
are  closely  allied,  and  mutual  conveni- 
ence cements  the  tie.  The  king  is  the 
lawful  ruler  and  proprietor  of  all  the  isl- 
ands, the  negotiator  in  foreign  relations ; 
the  premier  is  at  the  head  of  the  internal 
policy,  chief  counselor,  and  in  the  king's 
absence,  or  death,  acts  as  guardian  for 
the  heir,  and  becomes  the  responsible 
agent.  This  office  originated  in  the  af- 
fection of  Kamehameha  for  his  favorite 
queen,  and  the  necessity  of  a  check  upon 
the  heedless  passions  of  his  son.  Liho- 
liho was  crowned,  and  received  the  title 
of  Kamehameha  II. 

After  the  mourning  for  his  father  had 
terminated,  the  new  monarch  went  to 
reside  at  Kawaihae,  in  deference  to  a 
superstition,  which  considered  a  place 
defiled  by  the  death  of  a  king.  Scep- 
tical as  to  the  religion  of  his  youth,  yet 
wavering  between  old  and  new  desires, 
he  was  undecided  as  to  his  course.  On 
the  one  hand  the  priests  exerted  them- 
selves to  restore  his  credulity,  while 


HISTORY   OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


Kaahumanu  and  Kalaimoku  influenced 
him  to  a  more  liberal  policy.  The  latter 
for  a  while  prevailed,  and  Keopuolani 
urged  him  again  to  eat  in  violation  of 
the  taboo,  setting  the  example  herself. 
Liholiho,  still  wavering,  temporarily  re- 
turned to  heathen  rites  and  assisted  at  a 
sacred  festival,  indulging  with  his  train, 
in  revelry  and  drunkenness.  He  also 
consecrated  a  heiau  to  his  god  at  Hono- 
kohau. 

In  August,  1819,  the  French  corvette 
L'Uranie,  M.  Freycinet  commander,  ar- 
rived, and  remained  a  few  days.  Ka- 
laimoku (Billy  Pitt  as  he  was  familiarly 
called)  then  prime  minister,  was  induced 
to  receive  the  rites  of  baptism,  at  Hono- 
lulu, according  to  the  formula  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church.  His  brother, 
Boki,  followed  his  example;  neither  had 
any  clear  comprehension  of  its  meaning 
nor  design  ;  and  both,  after  exchanging 
presents  with  Freycinet,  returned  to 
their  usual  idolatrous  practices.  Unin- 
telligible as  was  this  ceremony  to  them, 
it  served  to  prepare  their  minds  for  fur- 
ther innovations.  Kaahumanu,  deter- 
mined in  her  opposition  to  the  priests, 
prepared  for  decisive  measures.  In  No- 
vember she  sent  word  to  the  king,  that 
upon  his  arrival  at  Kailua,  she  should 
cast  aside  his  god.  To  this  he  made  no 
objection,  but  with  his  retainers  pushed 
off  in  canoes  from  the  shore,  and  re- 
mained on  the  water  two  days,  indulg- 
ing in  a  drunken  revel.  Kaahumanu 
despatched  a  double  canoe  for  him,  in 
which  he  was  brought  to  Kailua.  Be- 
tween them  matters  were  arranged  for 
the  further  development  of  their  designs. 
He  then  smoked  and  drank  with  the  fe- 
male chiefs.  A  feast  was  prepared,  after 
the  customs  of  the  country,  with  sepa- 
rate tables  for  the  sexes.  A  number  of 
foreigners  were  entertained  at  the  king's. 
When  all  were  in  their  seats,  he  delib- 
erately arose,  walked  to  the  place  re- 
served for  the  women,  and  seated  him- 
self among  them.  To  complete  the 
horror  of  the  adherents  of  paganism,  he 
indulged  his  appetite  in  freely  partaking 
of  the  viands  prepared  for  them,  direct- 
ing the  women  to  do  likewise ;  but  he 
ate  writh  a  restraint  which  showed  that 
he  had  but  half  divested  himself  of  the 
idea  of  sacrilege  and  of  habitual  repug- 


nance. This  act  however  was  sufficient. 
The  highest  had  set  an  example,  which 
all  rejoiced  to  follow.  The  joyful  shout 
arose,  "the  taboo  is  broken!  the  taboo  is 
broken !  "  Feasts  were  provided  for  all, 
at  which  both  sexes  indiscriminately  in- 
dulged. Orders  were  issued  to  demolish 
the  heiaus,  and  destroy  the  idols ;  tem- 
ples, images,  sacred  property,  and  the 
relics  of  ages,  were  consumed  in  the 
flames.  The  high  priest,  Hewahewa, 
having  resigned  his  office,  was  the  first 
to  apply  the  torch.  Without  his  coop- 
eration the  attempt  to  destroy  the  old 
system  would  have  been  ineffectual. 
Numbers  of  his  profession,  joining  in 
the  enthusiasm,  followed  his  example. 
Kaumualii  having  given  his  sanction, 
idolatry  was  forever  abolished  by  law; 
and  the  smoke  of  heathen  sanctuaries 
arose  from  Hawaii  to  Kauai.  All  the 
islands  uniting  in  a  jubilee  at  their  de- 
liverance, presented  the  singular  spec- 
tacle of  a  nation  without  a  religion. 

The  character  of  the  people  at  this 
period  was  peculiar.  Superstition  had 
been  stripped  of  many  of  its  terrors,  and 
the  general  standard  of  morality  had 
increased.  Perhaps  it  is  more  correct 
to  say  that  a  knowledge  rather  than  a 
practice  of  purer  precepts  existed.  The 
most  repulsive  trait  was  the  universal 
licentiousness ;  not  greater  than  existed 
a  century  before,  but  was  made  a  shame- 
less traffic.  Although  the  majority  of  the 
idols  were  destroyed,  yet  some  were  se- 
cretly preserved  and  worshiped.  Cen- 
turies of  spiritual  degradation  were  not 
to  be  removed  by  the  excitement  of  a 
day,  or  the  edict  of  a  ruler.  Its  inter- 
ested advocates  prepared  for  a  fierce 
struggle.  Availing  themselves  of  their 
influence,  they  aroused  the  fears  of  mul- 
titudes; defection  arose  in  the  court, 
and  some  of  its  prominent  members  de- 
serted Liholiho  and  joined  Kekuokalani, 
a  nephew  of  Kamehameha,  who  next  in 
priestly  rank  to  Hewahewa,  had  been 
incited  to  erect  the  standard  of  revolt 
with  the  promise  of  the  crown  if  success- 
ful. The  priests,  fearing  for  their  occu- 
pation and  influence,  urged  him  to  the 
struggle  by  quoting  a  common  proverb 
among  them,  "  A  religious  chief  shall 
possess  a  kingdom,  but  wicked  chiefs 
shall  always  be  poor."  Said  they,  "of 


OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


all  the  wicked  deeds  of  wicked  kings  in 
past  ages  for  which  they  lost  their  king- 
doms, none  was  equal  to  this  of  Liho- 
liho."  Those  who  feared  innovation  and 
desired  "to  resist  and  turn  back  the  tide 
of  free  eating  which  was  threatening  to 
deluge  the  land,"  and  those  who  were 
dissatisfied  with  the  existing  govern- 
ment, gathered  about  him,  and  he  soon 
became  popular,  as  the  defender  of  their 
ancient  faith,  and  the  protector  of  the 
oppressed.  His  mother  endeavored  to 
induce  him  to  return  to  loyalty,  but 
urged  on  by  his  partisans,  who  had  com- 
mitted themselves  too  far  to  retract,  he 
turned  a  deaf  ear  to  her  entreaties. 

In  the  first  skirmish  the  loyalists  were 
worsted.  The  news  reaching  the  king, 
a  consultation  was  held,  in  which  Kalai- 
moku  urged  an  immediate  attack  with 
all  their  force  upon  Kaawaloa,  the  head- 
quarters of  the  enemy,  and  by  a  de- 
cisive blow  to  crush  the  insurrection 
before  it  had  become  formidable.  It 
was  determined,  however,  first  to  at- 
tempt conciliatory  measures.  Hoapili 
and  Naihe  were  appointed  ambassadors, 
and  Keopuolani  volunteered  to  accom- 
pany them.  They  reached  the  camp  of 
Kekuokalani  the  same  evening,  and 
used  every  endeavor  to  effect  an  ami- 
cable settlement.  Hoapili  urged  his 
relationship,  for  he  was  his  uncle,  pnd 
offered  to  leave  the  heathen  worship  op- 
tional with  his  partisans  ;  but  such  was 
the  rage  and  excitement  of  the  rebels, 
that  the  ambassadors  considered  them- 
selves fortunate  to  escape  with  their 
lives.  Kekuokalani's  forces  marched 
that  night  on  Kailua,  with  the  intention 
of  surprising  it.  The  royal  army,  aware 
of  the  expected  attack,  prepared  for  ac- 
tion under  the  command  of  Kalaimoku. 
The  armies  met  at  Kuamoo ;  the  en- 
gagement commenced  in  favor  of  the 
rebels,  and  had  their  fire-arms  been 
equal  to  those  of  their  adversaries,  the 
day  would  have  been  decided  in  their 
favor ;  but  a  charge  of  the  royal  troops 
drove  them  with  considerable  slaughter 
toward  the  sea-side,  where,  under  cover 
of  a  stone  wall,  they  made  for  some  time 
a  successful  resistance.  A  squadron  of 
double  canoes,  in  one  of  which  was  a 
mounted  swivel,  under  the  charge  of  a 
foreigner,  sailed  along  the  coast,  and 


their  shot  enfilading  the  rebels,  did  con- 
siderable execution,  and  created  disorder 
in  their  ranks.  This  fleet  was  under 
the  command  of  Kaahumanu  and  Kala- 
kua  ;  the  women  then,  as  anciently,  en- 
gaging freely  in  battle. 

Kekuokalani,  though  early  wounded, 
gallantly  continued  the  contest,  and  sev- 
eral times  rallied  his  flying  soldiers,  but 
was  at  last  struck  down  by  a  musket 
ball.  Manona,  his  wife,  during  the 
whole  action,  courageously  fought  by 
his  side;  seeing  him  fall,  she  was  in  the 
act  of  calling  for  quarter  to  Kalaimoku 
and  his  sister,  who  were  approaching, 
when  a  ball  struck  her  on  the  temple, 
and  she  fell  and  expired  upon  the  body 
of  her  husband.  After  this,  the  idolaters 
made  but  feeble  resistance,  though  the 
action  continued  ten  hours,  until  all  the 
rebels  had  fled  or  surrendered.  Most 
of  the  leaders  perished.  The  victors 
carried  their  arms  to  Waimea,  where 
another  body  of  insurgents  had  taken 
the  field.  They  were  quickly  subdued, 
and  the  king  used  his  success  with  such 
moderation,  that  the  whole  island  re- 
turned to  its  allegiance.  About  fifty  of 
.the  rebels  and  ten  of  the  royalists  were 
killed  in  these  engagements.  The  re- 
action against  the  tide  of  "  free  eating  " 
in  consequence  of  this  victory  was  past. 
The  chiefs  who  had  so  warmly  sustained 
the  priests,  turned  upon  them  and  slew 
Kuawa,  who  was  the  chief  agent  in  so 
fatally  misleading  Kekuokalani.  They 
next  attacked  their  idols,  throwing  them 
into  the  sea,  using  them  for  fuel,  and 
otherwise  expressing  their  rage  and 
contempt  for  their  pretended  sanctity. 
"  There  is  no  powrer  in  the  gods,"  said 
they,  "they  are  a  vanity  and  a  lie.  The 
army  with  idols  was  weak ;  the  army 
without  idols  was  strong  and  victorious." 

Before  the  news  of  these  remarkable 
events  reached  the  United  States,  an 
interest  had  been  awakened  in  the  re- 
ligious public,  for  the  purpose  of  convey- 
ing to  these  islands  the  knowledge  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  Some  Hawaiian 
youths,  who  had  spent  several  years  in 
that  country,  and  ardently  desired  to 
carry  the  blessings  of  Christianity  to 
their  countrymen,  increased  this  inter- 
est. Among  them  was  George  Kau- 
mualii,  son  of  the  ruler  of  Kauai,  who 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  I8LASVS. 


103 


had  been  sent  when  a  mere  lad  to  the 
United  States,  to  secure  an  education. 
The  sea-captain  who  had  him  in  charge 
died  suddenly,  and  the  funds  provided 
for  his  expenses  were  lost.  George 
thus  cast  upon  his  own  resources,  led 
an  erratic  life,  and  finally  shipped  on 
board  of  a  United  States'  vessel,  served 
during  the  war,  and  in  1814  was  dis- 
charged at  Charlestown.  Here  he  was 
recognized  by  some  benevolent  indi- 
viduals, who  sent  him  to  school,  where 
he  made  respectable  progress.  His 
father  had  often  expressed  a  wish  for 
the  arrival  of  teachers  to  instruct  his 
people,  in  which  desire  he  had  been 
joined  by  several  other  chiefs ;  and  he 
had  expected  good  results  from  the  edu- 
cation of  his  son.  A  letter  had  been 
received  from  him,  written  at  school,  in 
which  he  adjured  his  parents  to  re- 
nounce idolatry. 

On  the  30th  of  March,  1820,  the  first 
missionaries  arrived  at  Hawraii.  The 
cheering  intelligence  of  the  abolition  of 
idolatry,  and  the  favorable  condition  of 
the  nation  for  the  reception  of  a  new 
religion,  reached  them  that  evening. 
They  were  kindly  received,  and  Kalai- 
moku  and  the  two  dowager  queens,  on 
the  first  of  April,  made  them  a  visit  on 
board  their  vessel,  the  Thaddeus.  On 
this  occasion  they  were  neatly  dressed 
in  foreign  costume,  and  their  urbanity 
made  a  favorable  impression  on  the 
missionaries.  April  4th,  the  brig  an- 
chored at  Kailua  ;  they  met  with  a  hos- 
pitable reception  from  Kuakini,  who 
spoke  English,  and  who  seemed  pleased 
at  their  arrival.  Hewahewa*  was  cor- 
dial in  his  welcome  to  his  "  brother 
priests,"  as  he  called  them.  He  pos- 
sessed an  uncommon  liberality  of  mind; 
five  months  before  he  had  counseled 
the  king  to  destroy  the  idols,  publicly 
renounced  heathenism  himself  and  ac- 


*  In  a  conversation  with  a  gentleman,  then  on  board 
the  Thaddeus,  Hewahewa  related  the  method  by  which 
the  king  and  himself  came  to  understand  each  other 
relative  to  the  destruction  ot  the  idols  and  their  rites. 
So  great  was  the  fear  that  then  existed  upon  the  sub- 
ject, that  although  each  suspected  the  desires  of  the 
other,  neither  dared  openly  avow  them.  The  conver- 
sation opened  as  follows :  "  What  do  you  think  of  the 
taboos  ?  "  The  reply  was  a  similar  interrogatory. 
King :  "  Do  you  think  it  well  to  break  them  1 "  Priest : 
"  That  lies  with  you."  King,  again :  "  It  is  as  you 
say."  And  in  this  manner,  endeavoring  to  penetrate 
each  other's  sentiments,  they  were  led  to  the  true  ex- 
pression of  their  thoughts. 


knowledged  his  belief  in  one  Supreme 
Being.  "  I  knew,"  said  he,  "  that  the 
wooden  images  of  our  deities,  carved  by 
our  own  hands,  were  incapable  of  sup- 
plying our  wants,  but  I  worshiped  them 
because  it  was  the  custom  of  our  fathers; 
they  made  not  the  kalo  to  grow,  nor  sent 
us  rain  ;  neither  did  they  bestow  life  or 
health.  My  thought  has  always  been, 
'Akahi  \vale  no  Akua  nui  iloko  o  ka 
lani'— there  is  'one  only  Great  God 
dwelling  in  the  heavens.'  " 

By  an  old  regulation,  no  foreigner  was 
allowed  permanently  to  remain  without 
the  consent  of  the  king  and  his  council. 
The  former  sovereign  would  not  permit 
a  foreigner  to  build  a  house  on  the  isl- 
ands except  for  himself.  The  mission- 
aries made  no  attempt  to  settle  on  shore, 
until  the  free  consent  of  the  government 
had  been  formally  obtained.  Prejudices 
had  been  imbibed  in  regard  to  their  in- 
tentions from  evi!  disposed  persons,  who 
had  represented  that  the  Government  of 
England  would  be  displeased  if  mission- 
aries from  America  were  received ;  and 
that  they  intended  eventually  to  monop- 
olize both  trade  and  political  power.  In 
a  full  meeting  of  the  principal  chiefs, 
these  objections  were  overruled,  and  the 
missionaries,  after  a  detention  on  board 
the  brig  of  two  weeks,  were  allowed  to 
settle  among  the  islands  for  one  year, 
with  the  understanding  that  if  they 
proved  unworthy,  they  were  to  be  sent 
away.  Their  chief  patrons  were  Kaahu- 
manu  and  Kalaimoku;  the  king,  though 
friendly,  wras  considerably  influenced  by 
vicious  whites  in  his  train,  who  foresaw 
that  as  knowledge  increased,  their  im- 
portance and  occupations  would  cease. 
The  principal  of  these  intriguers  was 
John  Rives,  a  low  Frenchman,  who 
filled  the  offices  of  cook,  boot-black,  sec- 
retary and  boon  companion,  as  the  in- 
clination of  the  king  permitted.  This 
man  had  the  address,  assisted  by  the 
influence  of  certain  Englishmen,  who 
were  jealous  of  the  Americans,  to  pro- 
cure an  edict  for  the  expulsion  of  all 
residents  of  that  nation.  They  were 
ordered  to  leave  the  islands  by  the  first 
vessel,  and  the  missionaries  were  ex- 
pected to  follow  at  the  end  of  their  year 
of  probation.  At  this  period  the  chiefs 
were  fearful  of  giving  umbrage  to  Eng- 


104 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


land  by  showing  favor  to  Americans  in 
allowing  them  to  settle,  and  they  seem 
to  have  imbibed  the  idea  that  their  sov- 
ereignty would  be  endangered  by  them. 
Mr.  Young  was  ordered  to  write  to 
England  to  inform  the  government  that 
American  missionaries  had  come  there 
to  reside  to  teach  the  people.  The  mis- 
sionaries were  forbidden  to  send  for 
others,  for  fear  they  might  be  burden- 
some or  dangerous. 

In  their  interest  for  the  spiritual  wel- 
fare of  the  Hawaiians,  the  friends  of  the 
mission  had  not  been  unmindful  of  their 
physical  improvement.  Among  the  num- 
ber of  the  first  band,  were  a  mechanic, 
physician,  farmer  and  printer;  also  three 
clergymen,  Messrs.  Bingham,  Thurston 
and  Ruggles.  All  brought  families,  and 
their  wives  were  the  first  civilized  wo- 
men who  landed  on  these  islands;  much 
was  expected  from  their  exertions  in  set- 
ting examples  of  well  regulated  house- 
holds, the  pleasures  of  domestic  life,  and 
the  beneficent  influence  of  Christianity, 
particularly  in  ameliorating  and  elevat- 
ing their  sex.*  Notwithstanding  the 
licentious  dispositions  of  the  islanders, 
but  one  instance  of  an  insult  to  a  white 
female  ever  occurred.  This  happened 
at  Kailua,  soon  after  their  arrival,  where 
a  native,  smitten  by  the  charms  of  one 
of  their  number,  behaved  with  a  rude- 
ness which  caused  alarm.  Liholiho,  by 
the  advice  of  the  foreigners  present,  de- 
termined to  put  the  fellow  to  death,  but 
at  the  intercession  of  the  husband  of 
the  insulted  lady,  spared  his  life.  Mr. 
Thurston  remained  at  this  place.  Mr. 
Bingham,  with  several  others,  proceed- 
ed to  Honolulu,  and  there  met  with  a 
kind  reception  from  the  foreigners  and 
Governor  Boki.  Messrs.  Ruggles  and 
Whitney  sailed  for  Kauai,  with  George 
Kaumualii.  When  the  intelligence  of 


*  The  islanders  thus  expressed  their  opinions  of  the 
females :  "  They  are  white,  and  have  hats  with  a  spout ; 
their  faces  are  round  and  far  in ;  their  necks  are  long ; 
they  look  well."  They  were  called  the  "ai  oeoe," — 
long  necked.  In  their  curiosity,  they  followed  them 
about  in  crowds,  peering  under  their  bonnets,  and 
taking  many  liberties  in  handling  their  dress,  which 
was  permitted,  as  no  offence  was  intended.  When  the 
missionaries  first  engaged  in  prayer,  closing  their  eyes 
according  to  custom,  the  natives  fled,  imagining  them 
to  be  sorcerers,  engaged  in  praying  them  to  death. 
The  Holy  Trinity  was  considered  as  three  distinct 
Gods,  to  whom  they  gave  the  names  of  Kane,  Kanaloa 
and  Maui ;  and  their  first  conceptions  of  the  doctrines 
of  Christianity  were  exceedingly  rude,  and  imbued 
with  the  gross  ideas  of  their  old  theology. 


his  arrival  reached  the  king,  he  fired  a 
salute  of  twenty-one  guns,  and  mani- 
fested the  utmost  joy  at  once  again  em- 
bracing his  son.  He  expressed  great 
pleasure  at  the  arrival  of  the  mission- 
aries, and  engaged  to  provide  liberally 
for  them.  From  this  time  to  his  death, 
he  remained  their  steadfast  friend.  To 
the  captain  of  the  brig  he  made  valuable 
presents ;  on  George  he  conferred  the 
second  station  of  importance  in  his  isl- 
and, besides  giving  him  chests  of  cloth- 
ing, the  fort  at  Waimea,  and  finally  a 
large  and  fertile  valley.  These  dis- 
tinctions elated  the  youth,  though  he 
continued  disposed  to  serve  his  friends, 
and  lived  after  a  civilized  manner.  His 
father,  to  induce  the  settlement  of  all  the 
missionaries  with  him,  offered  to  build 
houses  for  them,  for  schools  and  for 
places  of  worship,  and  to  use  his  au- 
thority in  causing  his  people  to  respect 
the  Sabbath,  and  attend  their  teachings. 
Messrs.  Whitney  and  Ruggles,  in  July, 
took  up  their  residence  on  Kauai.  It  is 
not  an  uninteresting  event  to  record 
that  the  interpreter  of  Kaumualii,  a 
middle-aged  native,  had  dined  with  Gen- 
eral Washington  in  New  York,  who 
gave  him  clothes  and  treated  him  with 
much  kindness  as  a  native  of  the  islands 
where  Cook  was  killed. 

At  Oahu,  the  foreigners  subscribed 
six  hundred  dollars  for  a  school  fund 
for  orphan  children  ;  several  manifested 
kindness  and  attention  to  the  wants  of 
the  missionaries,  a  desire  to  aid  them  in 
their  labors,  and  made  laudable  exer- 
tions for  the  education  of  their  families. 

The  chiefs  made  many  requests  for 
artisans  to  instruct  their  people,  with 
offers  to  support  them  handsomely. — 
Their  applications  were  forwarded  to  the 
United  States.  The  zeal  of  the  king  for 
instruction  was  truly  royal ;  none  of  the 
common  people  were  at  first  permitted 
to  learn  to  read.  In  accordance  with 
their  ideas,  knowledge,  with  the  other 
good  things  of  life,  were  the  birth-right 
of  rank.  The  progress  of  several  of 
the  chiefs  was  rapid.  In  July,  Liholiho 
could  read  intelligibly ;  in  November 
four  schools,  containing  one  hundred 
pupils,  were  established. 

In  the  autumn  of  the  year,  Liholiho 
removed  with  his  court  to  Lahaina,  on 


HISTORY   OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


105 


the  island  of  Maui.  He  soon  paid  but 
little  attention  to  his  studies,  and  spent 
most  of  his  time  in  revelry,  though  he 
learnt  rapidly,  and  his  knowledge  of 
geography,  the  customs,  productions  and 
governments  of  other  countries  was  re- 
spectable. The  vagabond  whites  about 
him,  taking  advantage  of  his  inquisitive- 
ness,  corrupted  his  mind  by  teaching 
him  the  basest  phrases  of  their  own  lan- 
guage. By  them  he  was  freely  supplied 
with  rum,  and  encouraged  in  gambling. 
At  times  he  would  spend  many  hours  at 
his  desk;  and  when  not  under  the  effects 
of  liquor,  was  kind  and  affable.  But  his 
dissipation  lead  to  ruinous  debts ;  the 
rich  stores  and  treasures  of  his  father 
were  squandered  on  favorites,  and  the 
monopoly  of  the  sandal-wood  trade  car- 
ried to  such  an  extent  as  to  produce  the 
most  disastrous  consequences.  His  fa- 
vorites, availing  themselves  of  his  easy 
good  nature,  in  moments  of  conviviality 
obtained  orders  for  their  personal  ben- 
efit, which  the  people  were  obliged  to 
execute.  Days  were  spent  in  drunken- 
ness and  debauchery.  While  intoxi- 
cated, the  king  purchased  largely  of 
foreigners,  and  profusely  bestowed  gifts 
of  broadcloths,  richest  silks  and  satins, 
and  other  costly  goods  upon  his  retain- 
ers. Vessels  were  bought  on  credit,  for 
large  sums;  $80,000  in  sandal-wood  was 
paid  for  the  Cleopatra's  Barge,  a  yacht 
sent  out  by  a  Boston  house  at  an  ex- 
pense of  $30,000.  $40,000  were  given 
for  the  brig  Thaddeus,  $16,000  for  a 
small  schooner,  and  their  cargoes  pur- 
chased at  corresponding  rates.  Through 
such  extravagances  heavy  debts  were 
contracted,  and  to  pay  them  monopolies 
created  and  taxation  carried  to  its  ut- 
most bounds  ;  not  a  fowl  or  vegetable 
could  be  sold  without  a  premium  paid 
to  the  chiefs.  Vast  quantities  of  sandal- 
wood  were  collected  and  sold,  but  debts 
augmented.  The  uniform  and  equalized 
system  of  Kamehameha  I.  was  set  aside, 
and  instead  of  one  humane  task-master, 
a  thousand  tyrants  sprung  into  existence; 
the  confusion  which  prevailed  in  court, 
spread  elsewhere  ;  the  avarice,  wants 
and  dissipation  of  the  chiefs  increased, 
as  their  resources  diminished,  and  tax- 
ation, exposure  and  tyranny  daily  car- 
ried disease  and  death  into  the  house- 
14 


holds  of  the  tenantry.  The  infatuation 
prevailed  during  Liholiho's  reign  and  did 
not  cease  until  the  conversion  of  some  of 
the  principal  chiefs  to  the  Christian  reli- 
gion. In  the  figurative  tongue  of  Hawaii, 
rum  was  a  "  poison  god,"  and  debt,  "  a 
moth  "  which  consumed  the  islands. 

No  sooner  was  the  influence  of  the 
missionaries  felt  than  vigorous  efforts  to 
counteract  it  were  manifested.  Some  of 
the  natives  were  influenced  by  the  mis- 
representations and  calumnies  of  certain 
foreigners,  but  as  a  body  they  respected 
their  motives  and  character.  Every  al- 
lowance that  charity  can  permit  should 
be  made  for  those  who  by  circumstances 
beyond  their  own  control  or  by  fortuitous 
events,  have  been  exposed  to  unusual 
temptations.  To  youth  ardent  in  the 
first  impulses  of  manhood,  unfixed  by 
principle  and  unfortified  by  habit,  no 
situations  can  be  more  alluring  than 
those  which  while  they  give  them  a  real 
or  nominal  superiority  freely  acknowl- 
edged by  those  around  them,  leave  them 
full  scope  in  the  indulgence  of  their 
selfish  desires.  Such  was  emphatically 
the  case  here  at  this  period  and  much 
later.  The  native  women  were  but  too 
proud  to  form  connections  with  white 
men ;  the  white  men  were  equally  free 
in  the  gratification  of  their  sensual  ap- 
petites. The  temperance  reformation 
was  then  in  its  infancy.  The  Pacific 
was  notorious  for  its  facilities  for  dissi- 
pation and  its  lack  of  moral  restraint. 
Self-interest  had  led  the  whites  here, 
and  that  gratified,  nothing  remained  but 
physical  pleasures.  Had  there  been 
opportunities  for  moral  and  intellectual 
excitement  and  the  amenities  of  social 
life,  few  even  of  those  men  would  have 
gone  the  lengths  they  did  in  the  indul- 
gence of  their  passions.  But  as  it  was, 
history  obliges  us  to  record  the  fact  that 
the  whites  settled  on  the  islands  were, 
with  exceptions,  it  is  true,  a  dissolute 
race,  fostering  in  the  natives  the  very 
habits  they  were  too  prone  to  indulge  in 
by  nature  and  custom,  but  which  the 
missionary  steadily  frowned  upon  as  at 
variance  with  the  morality  of  the  gospel. 
Under  such  circumstances,  the  whites 
could  not  but  feel  reproved  by  their  ex- 
ample, and  irritated  by  their  preaching. 
Hence  arose  an  enmity  towards  the  mis- 


106 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


sion,  confined,  at  its  commencement,  to 
that  class  whose  depraved  appetites,  or 
selfish  interests,  were  affected  by  the  in- 
crease of  virtue  and  knowledge.  The 
presence  of  pure  domestic  circles,  while 
they  reminded  them  of  the  homes  they 
had  left,  contrasted  widely  with  their 
loose  lives  even  in  the  eyes  of  natives. 
With  some  perhaps  the  novel  restraint 
of  an  incipient  public  opinion  gave  an 
additional  zest  to  their  illicit  pleasures. 
Hence  we  find  a  contest  early  com- 
menced between  certain  of  the  whites 
and  the  missionaries  ;  the  one  endeav- 
oring to  secure  as  mistresses  the  young 
half  caste  females  of  most  promise  in 
mind  and  body,  and  the  other  to  provide 
for  them  permanently  in  schools  where 
they  would  be  rigidly  secluded  from 
vice  and  instructed  in  the  knowledge 
and  virtues  of  domestic  life.  But  as 
might  have  been  expected,  the  allure- 
ments of  dress  and  an  indolent  life, 
corresponded  too  well  with  previous 
impressions  and  desires,  to  enable  them 
in  every  instance  to  cleave  to  their 
white  sisters,  by  whom  they  would  have 
been  taught  habits  of  household  indus- 
try, naturally  repugnant  to  them.  Be- 
side the  contests  which  arose  from  this 
rivalry  between  virtue  and  vice,  others 
more  directly  appealing  to  the  self-in- 
terest of  the  traders  speedily  operated  to 
widen  the  breach  between  missionary 
and  resident.  It  was  unavoidable  that 
the  former  in  preaching  to  the  chiefs 
should  reprobate  their  extravagance  and 
urge  a  more  rational  expenditure  and 
husbanding  the  national  resources. — 
Anxious  as  the  missionaries  were  to 
avoid  collision  with  their  fellow-country- 
men, exiles  like  themselves,  though  from 
far  different  motives,  yet  it  was  impos- 
sible for  them  not  to  proscribe  to  their 
converts,  and  indeed  it  was  their  duty, 
the  wicked  waste  of  merchandise  which 
characterized  the  nation,  and  particu- 
larly to  declaim  against  the  use  of  ar- 
dent spirits.  They  came  also  to  im- 
part knowledge.  As  that  knowledge 
increased  among  the  people,  they  in- 
quired the  cost  of  foreign  merchandise, 
and  drew  comparisons  between  it  and 
the  prices  of  the  traders.  The  result 
went  naturally  to  diminish  extravagant 
desires  and  to  lessen  the  chances  of  ex- 


travagant profits.  Some  of  the  residents 
had  the  manliness  and  perception  to 
foresee  the  true  results,  and  cultivated 
an  amity  which  was  mutually  beneficial. 
Respect  was  shown  to  the  Sabbath,  and 
the  moral  requirements  of  religion  grad- 
ually observed ;  in  the  progress  of  civi- 
lization and  Christianity  they  perceived 
real  advantages,  even  to  worldly  pur- 
suits, and  they  could  not  fail  to  respect 
virtues  which  though  they  might  judge 
them  ascetic,  they  knew  to  be  sincere. 
But  there  were  many  who  could  ill 
brook  to  hear  vice  called  by  its  legiti- 
mate name. 

At  an  annual  entertainment  given  in 
honor  of  his  deceased  father,  at  Kailua, 
in  1820,  Liholiho  invited  all  the  mission 
family,  and  at  his  request,  a  Christian 
blessing  was  invoked.  Kaumualii  and 
his  wife  commenced  their  studies.  In 
April,  1S21,  desirous  of  opening  a 
friendly  intercourse  with  Pomare,  to  wit- 
ness for  himself  the  results  of  mission- 
ary enterprise,  and  to  procure  valuable 
and  useful  exotics  for  his  island,  he 
planned  a  voyage  to  Tahiti  in  a  fine  brig 
belonging  to  him,  lying  at  Waimea.  At 
his  request,  two  of  the  missionaries  were 
to  be  in  his  suite.  The  calumnies  of 
a  few  foreigners,  who  represented  the 
Tahitian  missionaries  as  great  hypo- 
crites and  wholly  unworthy  of  credit, 
and  that  the  port  charges  would  be  ten 
thousand  dollars,  induced  him  to  relin- 
quish the  undertaking.  It  is  an  un- 
grateful task  to  be  obliged  to  recur  to 
facts  like  these,  but  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
historian  to  state  the  truth  when  neces- 
sary to  his  subject.  Much  of  the  earlier 
portion  of  Hawaiian  history  will  be  found 
pregnant  with  details  highly  discredit- 
able to  parties,  who  from  the  time  their 
pleasures  or  interests  came  in  conflict 
with  the  purer  objects  of  the  missiona- 
ries or  the  welfare  of  the  people,  main- 
tained against  both  a  bitter  and  reckless 
hostility.  Enmity  on  one  side  was 
sometimes  opposed  by  error  on  the  other, 
and  it  will  be  my  object  to  state  faith- 
fully whatever  is  requisite,  but  nothing 
more,  for  the  clear  understanding  of  the 
means  and  principles  brought  to  bear  on 
either  side,  by  which  the  nation  has  la- 
boriously worked  its  way  into  something 
like  a  regular  and  efficient  government. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


107 


There  will  be  found  throughout  the  pro- 
longed contest,  a  conservative,  civilized 
and  moral  principle  on  the  one  hand;  on 
the  other  an  opposition,  active,  persever- 
ing and  unsystematic ;  bound  by  no  tie 
of  a  common  purpose,  except  so  far  as 
interested  views  or  factious  dispositions 
knit  men  together.  At  this  juncture 
commenced  the  struggle  between  the 
two  parties ;  the  one  to  uphold  morality, 
strengthen  the  nation,  and  implant  civil- 
ization on  the  basis  of  the  word  of  God ; 
the  other,  with  no  avowed  purpose  of 
opposing  these  views,  but  with  maintain- 
ing an  influence  favorable  to  their  own 
less  rigid  principles,  and  friendly  to  their 
personal  desires.  Good  and  evil  will  be 
found  mixed  in  both.  Without  condemn- 
ing in  full  all  who  chose  to  range  them- 
selves under  the  anti-mission  banner,  for 
among  them  were  men  who,  though  they 
erred  perhaps  in  theory,  yet  in  practice 
were  often  just,  generous  and  service- 
able, the  most  consistent  friends  of  the 
nation  will  be  found  on  the  other  side  ; 
not  that  they  were  always  wise  in  their 
policy,  or  unselfish  in  their  desires,  but 
the  principles  they  professed  have  been 
such  as  to  secure  the  confidence  of  the 
people  and  preserve  them  through  many 
periods  of  trial.  At  this  date,  however, 
they  were  suspicious  of  the  designs  of 
foreigners  generally,  a  state  of  feeling 
kept  alive  by  national  prejudices,  opera- 
ting on  the  ill-informed  minds  of  the  na- 
tives. At  Honolulu,  uneasiness  was  ex- 
pressed on  account  of  a  cellar  that  was 
being  dug  for  Mr.  Bingham's  house, 
which  had  been  sent  out  from  America 
in  frame.  It  was  reported  to  be  design- 
ed for  a  secret  magazine  of  arms,  and 
that  a  conspiracy  was  intended,  in  which 
the  royal  family  were  to  be  slaughtered. 
But  stories  so  preposterous  recoiled  upon 
their  authors.  Before  the  expiration  of 
the  year,  the  chiefs  were  satisfied  with 
the  designs  and  intentions  of  the  mission, 
and  requested  them  to  send  for  a  rein- 
forcement. The  missionaries,  desirous 
of  securing  still  further  the  favor  of  the 
king,  offered  to  have  built  for  him  a  sim- 
ilar house,  which  was  then  considered, 
in  comparison  with  the  thatched  huts,  a 
grand  affair. 

Two   Russian  ships  of  war  entered 
Honolulu  harbor,  April  2d,  1821.     The 


officers  were  entertained  on  board  "  The 
Pride  of  Hawaii,"  his  majesty's  flag 
ship ;  late  the  "  Cleopatra's  Barge."  In 
return,  the  king  dined  with  the  commo- 
dore, receiving  the  honors  of  his  rank. 

In  July,  Liholiho  made  the  voyage  to 
Kauai  in  an  open  boat.  Having  become 
jealous  of  Kaumualii,  on  account  of  a 
letter  received  from  George,  in  which  he 
was  addressed  simply  as  "  king  of  the 
windward  islands,"  he  determined  to  visit 
him.  Without  disclosing  his  intention, 
he  left  Honolulu  for  Ewa  on  the  21st, 
with  Boki,  Naihe,  and  about  thirty  at- 
tendants, including  two  women.  Having 
arrived  off  that  place,  the  wind  being 
fair,  he  ordered  the  helmsman  to  steer 
for  Kauai.  The  chiefs  expostulated,  but 
to  no  purpose;  the  boatmen  were  fright- 
ened; they  had  neither  water,  provisions, 
chart  nor  compass ;  the  island  was  one 
hundred  miles  distant ;  the  channel 
rough,  and  the  wind  strong;  moreover, 
Kaumualii  might  prove  hostile,  and 
crush  their  little  party.  But  he  was  not 
to  be  dissuaded.  The  whim  had  seized 
him  when  half  intoxicated,  and,  reckless 
of  consequences,  he  sternly  ordered  them 
to  proceed.  Although  he  had  never  been 
at  Kauai,  he  had  a  correct  idea  of  its 
position ;  and  spreading  out  his  fingers, 
to  represent  the  different  points  of  the 
compass,  naming  them  in  broken  Eng- 
lish, he  directed  the  course  of  the  boat. 
Twice  was  it  nearly  capsized,  and  ready 
to  sink.  His  attendants  begged  him  to 
put  back.  "  No,"  said  the  resolute  king; 
"  bail  out  the  water,  and  go  on ;  if  you 
return  with  the  boat,  I  will  swim  to 
Kauai."  By  vigorously  plying  their 
calabashes  they  kept  it  free  from  water, 
and  continued  their  course,  steering  well 
to  the  northward.  Just  before  dark  the 
island  was  discovered,  being  several 
points  on  the  lee  bow.  Putting  their 
craft  before  the  wind,  they  ran  for  it, 
though  at  considerable  hazard  from  the 
sea,  which  continually  broke  over  them. 
Early  the  next  morning,  exhausted  with 
hunger  and  fatigue,  they  came  to  off  the 
coast.  As  soon  as  Kaumualii  was  ap- 
prised of  the  circumstances,  he  hurried 
on  board,  and  welcomed  him  to  his  do- 
minions. A  commodious  house  was  pre- 
pared for  him,  and  a  brig  and  schooner 
despatched  to  Oahu  to  relieve  the  appre- 


108 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


hensions  of  his  subjects,  and  to  bring  two 
of  his  wives,  with  their  retinues.  Liliha, 
Boki's  wife,  arrived  on  the  23d,  with 
four  attendants,  having  made  the  voyage 
in  a  small  canoe,  in  the  management  of 
which  the  natives  are  much  more  skilful 
than  of  boats,  easily  righting  and  freeing 
them  from  water  when  upset.  The  king 
was  highly  delighted  with  her  adventur- 
ous courage. 

The  forbearance  of  Kaumualii  when 
Liholiho  was  so  completely  in  his  power, 
is  remarkable.  Instead  of  making  it  an 
occasion  of  demanding  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  his  independence,  or  other  con- 
firmation of  his  present  authority,  with  a 
spirit  faithful  to  the  very  letter  of  his 
agreement  with  Kamehameha  I.,  he  vol- 
untarily proposed  a  formal  surrender  of 
his  kingdom  to  his  guest.  With  much 
emotion,  he  addressed  him  in  the  follow- 
ing terms:  "King  Liholiho,  hear!  When 
your  father  was  alive,  I  acknowledged 
him  as  my  superior.  Since  his  death,  I 
have  considered  you,  his  rightful  succes- 
sor, and,  according  to  his  appointment, 
king.  I  have  many  muskets  and  men, 
and  much  powder ;  these,  with  my  ves- 
sels, the  fort,  guns,  and  the  island,  all 
are  yours.  Do  with  them  as  you  please. 
Send  me  where  you  please.  Place  what 
chief  you  please  as  governor  here."* 
Naihe  next  addressed  the  assembled 
chiefs,  and  confirmed  the  dependence  of 
Kaumualii  to  Kamehameha  I.  A  deep 
silence  prevailed,  and  all  awaited  with 
anxiety  the  reply  of  the  monarch.  With 
a  mildness  and  suavity  that  deceived 
every  one,  he  spoke  as  follows :  "  I  did 
not  come  to  take  away  your  island.  1 
do  not  wish  to  place  any  one  over  it. 
Keep  your  island,  and  take  care  of  it  just 
as  you  have  done,  and  do  what  you 
please  with  your  vessels."  A  shout  of 
approbation  resounded  on  all  sides,  and 
the  magnanimity  of  both  was  highly 
lauded.  After  this  scene  Liholiho  in- 
dulged in  a  debauch.  Kaumualii  was 
assiduous  in  his  endeavors  to  please  his 
royal  visitor,  whose  insincerity  and  real 
designs  were  soon  manifested.  His  beau- 
tiful vessel,  "  Haaheo  o  Hawaii," — pride 
of  Hawaii, — having  arrived  with  the  ex- 
pected chiefs,  Kaumualii  was  invited  on 
board.  While  unsuspiciously  seated  in 


1  Vol.  18,  Missionary  Herald,  p.  244. 


the  cabin,  orders  were  secretly  issued  to 
make  sail,  and  the  generous  and  faithful 
chief  was  made  a  state  prisoner,  and 
borne  from  his  dominions,  which  were 
entrusted  to  the  guardianship  of  Keeau- 
moku.  On  the  arrival  of  the  royal  parties 
at  Honolulu,  Kaumualii  was  compelled 
to  part  from  his  favorite  Kapuli,  and 
marry  the  imperious  Kaahumanu.  His 
title  was  continued  to  him,  but  with  it  no 
authority.  After  this  dishonorable  trans- 
action, Liholiho  proceeded  to  Hawaii. 
Kaahumanu  also  took  to  husband,  Ke- 
aliiahonui,  the  son  and  heir  of  Kaumu- 
alii, thus  holding  father  and  son  in  her 
chains,  which,  at  that  period,  were  not 
altogether  silken. 

August  15, 1821,  the  first  building—  a 
small,  thatched  edifice — erected  on  the 
islands  for  the  service  of  Christianity, 
was  dedicated  at  Honolulu. 

Liholiho  continued  in  his  profligacy, 
occasionally  manifesting  a  desire  for  bet- 
ter things.  To  the  arguments  of  a  mis- 
sionary, who  urged  him  to  reform,  he 
replied,  "  five  years  more  and  I  will  be- 
come a  good  man."  Throwing  off  all 
restraint  he  became  more  reckless  and 
dissipated  than  ever,  spending  his  time 
in  carousals  in  different  parts  of  his  do- 
minions as  humor  prompted.  In  a  fit  of 
jealousy  he  beheaded  a  chief.  A  native 
who  had  stolen  a  few  pieces  of  calico 
from  him,  he  ordered  to  be  ironed  and 
thrown  overboard. 

As  the  sandal-wood  diminished,  or  be- 
came more  difficult  to  be  procured,  new 
means  of  extortion  were  contrived,  one 
of  which,  from  its  singularity,  deserves 
record.  Whenever  a  chief  erected  a 
house  of  better  appearance  than  com- 
mon, no  one  was  allowed  to  enter  it, 
without  a  gift  adequate  to  the  rank  and 
wealth  of  the  visitor.  The  chiefs  on 
such  an  occasion,  would  present  the  king 
with  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  dollars  each ; 
foreigners  from  twenty  to  thirty,  and  all 
other  classes,  to  the  lowest  menial  of  his 
household,  a  proportionate  sum.  By  this 
means,  the  king  occasionally  raised  sev- 
eral thousand  dollars — governors  and 
chiefs  lesser  sums.  The  gross  habits  of 
the  ruler  infected  the  whole  nation ;  fe- 
male chiefs  of  the  highest  ranks  boarded 
ships  in  a  state  of  entire  nudity,  and  not 
unfrequently  visited  the  ladies  of  the  mis- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


109 


sion  in  that  condition,  in  the  presence  of 
the  other  sex.  The  saturnalian  practices 
of  all  orders  were  too  vile  even  to  be  al- 
luded to ;  all  the  variety  and  indecency 
that  lewdness  and  drunkenness  could  ac- 
complish, were  to  be  seen.  At  the  pre- 
sent day,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  credit 
that  such  was  ever  the  case ;  but  the 
testimony  is  undoubted. 

The  first  experiment  in  printing  was 
made  on  the  7th  of  January,  1S22.  Kee- 
aumoku  was  present.  He  assisted  in 
setting  up  the  types,  and  in  taking  a  few 
impressions  of  the  first  sheet  of  the  Ha- 
waiian spelling-book.  The  king,  chiefs 
and  foreigners  generally,  took  a  deep  in- 
terest in  the  success  of  this  enterprise. 
The  missionaries  employed  themselves 
assiduously  during  the  first  part  of  this 
year,  in  forming  the  Hawaiian  alphabet 
upon  the  basis  of  a  plan  furnished  them 
by  the  Hon.  John  Pickering,  of  Boston. 
The  vowel  sounds  were  the  same  as  those 
employed  in  his  alphabet  of  Indian  lan- 
guages. Printing  gave  a  new  impulse  to 
the  desire  of  knowledge  among  the  chiefs. 
Kuakini,  Kamamalu,  Keeaumoku,  and 
others,  applied  themselves  diligently  to 
learn  to  read  and  write.  Liholiho  again 
enlisted  himself  as  a  regular  pupil ;  his 
brother  and  sister  also  became  scholars. 
Even  Kaahumanu  shared  in  the  general 
enthusiasm,  and  laid  aside  her  cards  for 
her  alphabet.  Others  of  lesser  note  fol- 
lowed the  example  of  the  royal  family, 
and  the  schools  flourished.  The  king  was 
able  in  a  few  months  to  write  legibly.  In 
September,  five  hundred  pupils  were  re- 
ceiving instruction. 

The  arrival  at  Oahu  in  April,  of  Messrs. 
Tyerman  and  Bennet,  deputized  by  the 
London  Mission  Society  to  visit  all  mis- 
sionary stations,  and  the  Rev.  W.  Ellis, 
a  Tahitian  missionary,  with  Anna,  a  con- 
verted chief  of  that  nation,  and  his  train, 
proved  of  much  service  to  the  American 
mission.  By  their  efforts,  the  misunder- 
standing of  their  objects,  which  had  been 
so  industriously  cultivated  by  inimical 
persons,  was  counteracted.  Intelligent 
and  influential  Englishmen  were  found 
who  countenanced  its  objects,  which  they 
would  not  have  done,  were  they  appre- 
hensive of  any  sinister  designs  upon  the 
islands  by  a  rival  nation.  The  people 
themselves  could  not  believe  that  those 


who  came  with  their  families,  indulged 
in  ambitious  or  hostile  views.  Warlike 
designs  and  operations  received  no  en. 
couragement  from  the  presence  of  fe- 
males. At  the  joint  request  of  the  Amer- 
ican mission  and  the  chiefs,  Mr.  Ellis 
consented  to  return  with  his  family  and 
remain  one  year.  By  this  act,  the  last 
lingerings  of  jealousy  were  dissipated,  as 
it  was  seen  that  the  benevolent  of  both 
nations  united  in  laboring  for  their  wel- 
fare. The  sentiment  that  England  was 
their  protector,  and  exercised  a  species 
of  guardianship  over  their  country,  still 
extensively  prevailed,  and  was  kept  alive 
by  acts  of  national  courtesy,  and  the  in- 
terested views  of  English  traders,  who 
wished  to  secure  a  superiority  over  other 
nations  in  mercantile  transactions.  The 
chiefs  themselves,  from  their  regard  for 
Vancouver,  and  a  desire  of  increasing 
their  national  importance,  were  not 
averse  to  an  alliance,  even  if  it  implied 
some  degree  of  vassalage  ;  though  their 
disposition  to  acknowledge  themselves 
solely  and  wholly  British  subjects,  was 
doubtless  exaggerated.  Their  inter- 
course, from  the  commencement  of  the 
century,  had  been  mostly  with  Ameri- 
cans, and  their  predilections  toward  that 
nation  gradually  increasing.  When  the 
deputation  arrived,  they  found  forty  ships 
at  anchor  at  Hawaii  and  Oahu,  nearly 
all  whalers  from  the  United  States. 

The  English  government  uniformly 
manifested  a  courtesy  toward  the  island- 
ers that  was  highly  honorable.  Without 
asserting  a  claim  to  the  Islands,  they  re- 
cognized their  nationality  by  numerous 
acts  of  courtesy,  and  encouragement  to- 
ward civilization.  On  the  first  of  May 
of  this  year,  Captain  Kent  presented  to 
Liholiho,  in  the  name  of  His  Britannic 
Majesty,  a  schooner  of  seventy  tons,  call- 
ed the  Prince  Regent,  fully  rigged  and 
coppered,  with  an  armament  of  six  guns. 
This  was  the  long-promised  vessel  of 
Vancouver  to  Kamehameha  ;  a  gift 
which  unfortunately  neither  he  nor 
his  royal  friend  had  the  satisfaction  of 
seeing  accomplished. 

On  Sunday,  May  6th,  Liholiho  cele- 
brated his  accession  to  office,  with  a 
mixture  of  barbaric  pomp  and  attention 
to  civilized  customs,  which  showed  how 
rapidly  the  latter  were  becoming  natural- 


110 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


ized.  Salutes  were  fired  from  ships  and 
batteries,  and  national  flags  displayed 
from  all  the  vessels  in  port.  Great  quan- 
tities of  clothing  were  distributed,  in 
which  the  soldiers  and  attendants  made 
a  respectable,  though  incongruous  spec- 
tacle. Gaudily  colored  uniforms,  richly 
bedizened  with  gold  lace ;  chapeaux, 
boots,  plumes,  silk  stockings,  satins,  vel- 
vets, broadcloths,  tapas  and  calicoes ; 
gold  watches,  canes  and  jewelry  ;  feather 
cloaks,  helmets  and  kahilis,  were  seen 
in  the  throng.  Some  wore  dresses 
fashioned  by  foreign  artisans ;  others,  a 
mixture  of  the  past  and  present  costumes. 
Brilliant  silks,  wrapped  in  many  folds, 
encircled  the  waists  of  portly  dames, 
while  flower  wreaths,  or  hair  necklaces, 
negligently  rested  upon  their  exposed 
bosoms.  A  dinner  was  prepared  and 
served  in  European  style ;  and  through- 
out the  whole,  notwithstanding  the  quan- 
tity of  ardent  spirit  consumed,  an  un- 
usual decorum  prevailed.  Eighty  dogs 
formed  a  portion  of  the  viands.  The 
common  orders  indulged  in  excesses  of 
the  vilest  description. 

The  anniversary  of  the  national  in- 
dependence of  the  United  States  of  North 
America,  was  celebrated  on  the  fourth 
of  July,  in  a  more  rational  manner.  An 
oration  was  delivered  in  the  mission 
chapel,  by  J.  C.  Jones,  Esq.,  acting 
American  consul,  and  a  poem  recited  by 
Mr.  Bingham.  A  prayer  was  also  offered 
and  a  psalm  sung.  After  which  the 
company  adjourned  to  a  public  dinner, 
the  king  with  the  principal  foreign  resi- 
dents being  present. 

The  first  Christian  marriage  was  cele- 
brated, August  11,  between  two  con- 
verted natives.  On  the  13th,  Kaumualii 
and  Kaahumanu,  with  a  retinue  of  nearly 
twelve  hundred  people,  sailed  for  Kauai. 
Four  small  vessels  conveyed  this  multi- 
tude, which  crowded  their  decks,  and 
even  occupied  the  chains,  tops  and  bow- 
sprits. Previous  to  their  departure  Kaa- 
humanu issued  a  general  ordinance 
against  drunkenness,  which  was  pro- 
claimed by  public  criers  thoughout  the 
town  of  Honolulu.  The  object  of  the 
voyage  was  to  collect  the  annual  tribute 
of  sandal- wood.  While  they  were  on  the 
island,  the  wife  of  the  governor,  Keeau- 
moku,  died.  Though  none  of  the  prin- 


cipal chiefs  joined  in  the  ceremonies,  the 
heathen  customs  of  sacrifices  of  animals, 
with  chants  and  prayers,  were  practiced 
for  several  successive  days.  In  Decem- 
ber following  they  returned.  A  few  days 
afterward  a  young  member  of  the  royal 
family  died,  and  at  the  request  of  his 
relatives  received  a  Christian  burial.  It 
is  necessary  to  notice  many  events  of 
little  interest  by  themselves,  but  proper 
to  record,  that  the  gradual  development 
of  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  with  its  fre- 
quent fluctuations,  may  be  clearly  traced. 
Upon  the  departure  of  the  English 
deputation,  Captain  Kent,  with  whom 
they  sailed,  was  charged  with  the  fol- 
lowing letter  to  the  King  of  England. 
Though  it  bears  the  signature  of  Liho- 
liho,  it  was  not  written  by  him,  but  was 
supposed  to  convey  his  real  sentiments. 
Towards  the  ship's  company  he  behaved 
with  a  liberality  worthy  of  his  father. 

"  Oahu,  Sandwich  Islands,  August  21, 1822. 
"  MAY  IT  PLEASE  YOUR  MAJESTY  : 

"In  answer  to  your  Majesty's  letter  from  Governor 
Macquarrie,  I  beg  to  return  your  Majesty  my  most 
grateful  thanks  for  your  handsome  present  of  the 
schooner,  Prince  Regent,  which  I  have  received  at  the 
hands  of  Mr.  J.  R.  Kent. 

"  I  avail  myself  of  this  opportunity  of  acquainting 
your  Majesty  of  the  death  of  my  father,  Kamehameha, 
who  departed  this  life  the  8th  of  May,  1819,  much  la- 
mented by  his  subjects ;  and,  having  appointed  me  his 
successor,  I  have  enjoyed  a  happy  reign  ever  since  that 
period;  and  I  assure  your  Majesty  it  is  my  sincere 
wish  to  be  thought  as  worthy  your  attention  as  my 
father  had  the  happiness  to  be  during  the  visit  of  Cap- 
tain Vancouver.  The  whole  of  these  islands  having 
been  conquered  by  my  father,  I  have  succeeded  to  the 
government  of  them,  and  beg  leave  to  place  them  all 
under  the  protection  of  your  most  excellent  Majesty ; 
wishing  to  observe  peace  with  all  nations,  and  to  be 
thought  worthy  the  confidence  I  place  in  your  Majes- 
ty's wisdom  and  judgment. 

"  The  former  idolatrous  system  has  been  abolished 
in  these  Islands,  as  we  wish  the  Protestant  religion  of 
your  Majesty's  dominions  to  be  practiced  here.  I  hope 
your  Majesty  may  deem  it  fit  to  answer  this  as  soon  as 
convenient;  and  your  Majesty's  counsel  and  advice 
will  be  most  thankfully  received  by  your  Majesty's 
most  obedient  and  devoted  servant, 

"KAMEHAMEHA  II., 
"  King  of  the  Sandwich  Islands. 

"  To  GEOBGE  IV.,  King  of  England." 

Notwithstanding  efforts  made  to  in- 
duce the  king  entirely  to  abandon  his 
studies,  and  give  himself  up  once  more 
to  debauchery,  he  persevered  and  suc- 
ceeded in  acquiring  the  elements  of  in- 
struction, while  the  truths  of  Christian- 
ity were  acknowledged  by  his  intellect, 
though  set  at  nought  by  his  conduct. 
Of  their  requirements  he  was  not  wholly 
ignorant  before  the  arrival  of  the  mis- 
sionaries. When  one  of  his  wives,  soon 
after  the  Thaddeus  anchored  at  Kailua, 
urged  their  being  permitted  to  remain, 


u 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


Ill 


jocosely  observed,  "If  I  do,  I  shall  be 
obliged  to  put  you  away,  for  their  reli- 
gion allows  but  one  wife."  The  interest 
of  the  other  chiefs  daily  became  more 


apparent, 
claimed  a 


In  February,  1823,  they  pro- 


aw  for  the  public  observance 
of  the  Sabbath,  and  imposed  a  fine  of  one 
dollar  upon  all  who  should  be  guilty  of 
laboring  upon  that  day.  This  was  the 
dawning  of  that  legislation  which  was  af- 
terwards so  violently  opposed  by  foreign- 
ers, and  finally  resulted  in  bringing  the 
chiefs  and  missionaries  into  intimate  re- 
lations. It  will  be  seen  that  it  bore  the 
arbitrary  impress  of  the  old.  It  was  nat- 
ural for  them  to  suppose  that  by  the  sim- 
ple promulgation  of  their  will  the  natives 
could  be  compelled  to  observe  the  new 
doctrines.  Externally  it  proved  the  case. 
Many  became  convinced  of  their  truth 
and  utility,  though  clinging  to  past  li- 
cense ;  the  flesh  pots  of  Egypt  were  not 
to  be  forgotten  in  a  day ;  with  a  few, 
they  produced  a  thorough  reformation. 
Among  the  most  prominent  was  a  blind 
bard,  of  the  name  of  Puaaiki,  who  after- 
ward received  the  baptismal  name  of 
Bartimeus.  His  memory  was  prodigious. 
Versed  in  all  their  former  history,  he 
became  an  equal  adept  in  the  instruc- 
tions oi  the  new  teachers.  Not  a  thought 
was  uttered,  or  advice  given,  but  he 
treasured  it  up.  He  soon  became  a 
valuable  acquisition  to  the  mission,  and 
qualified  to  impart  wisdom  to  others. 
To  his  death  he  could  repeat  sermons 
delivered  by  the  earliest  missionaries, 
and  his  life  gave  evidence  of  the  sincer- 
ity of  his  conversion. 

In  March,  1823,  Hoapili  was  sent  with 
Keopuolani,  whom  he  had  married,  to 
Maui,  as  governor.  Puaaiki  was  receiv- 
ed into  their  family  as  a  domestic  chap- 
lain. Previous  to  this,  on  the  27th  of 
April,  the  ship  Thames  arrived  from 
America,  bringing  a  large  missionary  re- 
inforcement. They  were  cordially  wel- 
comed ;  some  of  the  chiefs  were  really 
desirous  of  securing  them  in  their  fam- 
ilies as  religious  teachers,  while  all  re- 
ceived them  as  public  benefactors.  The 
Utility  of  writing,  by  the  knowledge  of 
which  their  orders  were  transmitted  with 
so  much  ease  and  accuracy,  with  other 
useful  arts  derived  from  the  mission, 
had  created  a  powerful  revolution  in 


their  favor.  All  the  distrust  which  had 
been  so  signally  manifested  in  1520,  was 
now  removed.  Liholiho,  notwithstand- 
ing his  constant  strait  for  money,  remit- 
ted the  harbor  fees,  amounting  to  one 
hundred  and  sixty  dollars,  both  to  the 
vessel  that  brought  Mr.  Ellis,  and  the 
Thames.  To  the  captain  of  the  latter 
he  addressed  a  letter,  of  which  the  fol- 
lowing is  a  literal  translation  : 

"  To  CAPTAIN  CLASBY  : 

"  Love  to  you.  This  is  my  communication  to  you. 
You  have  done  well  in  bringing  hither  the  new  teach- 
ers. You  shall  pay  nothing  on  account  of  the  harbor 
— no,  nothing  at  all. 

"  Grateful  affection  to  you, 

•'LIHOLIHO  IOLANI."* 

On  the  26th  of  the  same  month  his 
majesty  held  his  annual  festival  in  cele- 
bration of  the  death  of  Kamehameha  I. 
On  this  occasion  he  provided  a  dinner  in 
a  rural  bower,  for  two  hundred  individ- 
uals. The  missionaries  and  all  respect- 
able foreigners  were  present ;  the  dresses 
were  an  improvement  upon  the  costumes 
of  the  preceding  year.  Black  was  the 
court  color,  and  every  individual  was  re- 
quired to  be  clothed  in  its  sombre  hue. 
Kamamalu  appeared  greatly  to  advant- 
age. The  company  were  all  liberally 
provided  for  by  her  attentions,  and  even 
a  party  of  sailors,  to  the  number  of  two 
hundred,  who  were  looking  on  with  wist- 
ful eyes,  were  served  with  refreshments. 
While  at  the  table,  a  procession  of  four 
hundred  natives  appeared  in  single  file, 
clad  in  white,  and  deposited  their  taxes 
at  the  feet  of  the  king.  The  festival  was 
prolonged  for  several  days,  and  was  con- 
cluded by  a  procession  in  honor  of  his 
five  queens.  Its  ceremonies  were  strik- 
ing and  interesting;  the  more  so  as  being 
the  last  national  exhibition  of  their  most 
ancient  customs,  combined  with  the 
splendor  derived  from  commerce,  and 
arranged  by  their  taste.  Kamamalu  was 
the  most  conspicuous  personage  in  the 
ranks.!  She  was  seated  in  a  whale-boat, 
placed  upon  a  frame  of  wicker-work, 
borne  on  the  shoulders  of  seventy  men. 
The  boat  and  the  platform,  which  was 
thirty  feet  long  by  twelve  wide,  were 
overspread  by  costly  broadcloth,  relieved 
by  the  richest  colored  and  most  beautiful 
tapas.  The  carriers  marched  in  a  solid 
phalanx,  the  outer  ranks  of  which  wore 


*  A  favorite  name  of  his.        t  Stewart's  Journal,  p  91. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


112 


a  uniform  of  yellow  and  scarlet  feather 
cloaks,  and  superb  helmets  of  the  same 
material.  The  queen's  dress  was  a  scar- 
let silk  mantle,  and  a  feather  coronet. 
An  immense  Chinese  umbrella,  richly 
gilded  and  decorated  with  tassels  and 
fringes  of  the  same  gaudy  color,  support- 
ed by  a  chief,  wearing  a  helmet,  screen- 
ed her  from  the  sun.  Kalaimoku  and 
Naihe  stood  behind  her  on  either  quar- 
ter of  the  boat,  both  with  malos,  or  gir- 
dles of  scarlet-colored  silk,  and  lofty 
helmets.  Each  bore  a  kahili,  the  staff 
of  royalty ;  these  were  nearly  thirty  feet 
high,  the  upper  part  being  arranged  so 
as  to  form  a  column  or  plume  of  scarlet 
feathers  of  a  foot  and  a  half  in  diameter, 
and  from  twelve  to  fourteen  feet  long ; 
the  handles  were  surrounded  with  alter- 
nate ivory  and  tortoise-shell  rings,  beau- 
tifully wrought  and  highly  polished. 
More  magnificent  insignia  of  rank,  con- 
veying at  once  the  ideas  of  grandeur,  state 
and  beauty,  as  they  towered  and  grace- 
fully nodded  above  the  multitude,  were 
never  devised  by  barbarians. 

Kinau  and  Kekauonohi,  appeared  in 
similar  pomp,  and  in  lieu  of  a  boat,  were 
mounted  upon  double  canoes.  The  prince 
and  princess  wore  simply  the  native  cos- 
tume ;  the  malo  and  pau,  made  from 
scarlet  silk.  Their  carriage  consisted  of 
four  Chinese  field  bedsteads,  fastened  to- 
gether, covered  with  handsome  native 
cloth,  and  surmounted  with  canopies  and 
drapery  of  yellow  figured  moreen.  Hoa- 
pili  and  Kaikioewa,  the  one  bearing  a 
dish  of  baked  dog,  the  other  a  calabash 
of  poi,  and  another  of  raw  fish,  the  prime 
articles  of  Hawaiian  diet,  followed  them 
as  servants  ;  this  was  indicative  of  their 
comparative  relations  to  the  royal  chil- 
dren, notwithstanding  their  own  proud  j 
lineage,  and  high  offices  ;  the  former  be- 
ing their  step-father,  and  the  latter  their 
guardian. 

The  dresses  of  the  queens-dowager 
were  remarkable  for  their  size  and  ex- 
pense. Seventy-two  yards  of  cassimere 
of  double  fold,  half  orange  and  half  scar- 
let, were  wrapped  around  the  figure  of 
one,  till  her  arms  were  sustained  by  the 
mass  in  a  horizontal  position,  while  the 
remainder,  forming  an  extensive  train, 
was  supported  by  a  retinue  selected  for 
that  purpose. 


Pauahi,  when  an  infant,  experienced  a 
narrow  escape  from  being  burnt  to  death, 
from  an  accidental  ignition  of  gunpow- 
der, by  which  five  men  were  killed,  her 
house  destroyed,  and  she  badly  injured. 
Hence  her  name,  pau,  completed,  and 
ahi,  fire.  To  commemorate  this  event, 
after  performing  her  part  in  the  proces- 
sion, she  alighted  from  her  couch,  and 
set  it  on  fire,  with  all  its  expensive  dec- 
orations ;  reserving  only  a  handkerchief, 
as  an  apology  for  a  covering,  she  threw 
all  of  her  dress  into  the  flames ;  her  at- 
tendants imitated  her  example,  and  a 
valuable  amount  of  cloth,  both  native 
and  foreign,  was  consumed. 

The  richness  and  variety  of  the  dress- 
es and  colors,  and  the  exhibition  of  the 
wealth  and  power  of  the  chiefs,  their 
hereditary  symbols  of  rank,  the  stately 
kahilis,  splendid  cloaks  and  helmets,  and 
necklaces  of  feathers,  intermingled  with 
the  brilliant  hues  and  deep  green  of  the 
flowers  and  wreaths,  from  their  native 
forests,  rendered  the  spectacle  at  once 
unique  and  attractive.  Groups  of  dancers 
and  singers,  to  the  number  of  several 
hundred,  accompanied  the  procession, 
enthusiastically  shouting  their  adula- 
tions in  the  willing  ears  of  their  chiefs. 
The  beating  of  drums  and  other  rude 
music,  swelled  the  wild  notes  of  their 
songs,  and  the  acclamations  of  thousands 
of  voices,  with  the  heavy  tramp  of  their 
feet,  broke  in  upon  the  deep-toned  cho- 
ruses and  thrilling  responses.  Amid  the 
throng  the  king,  with  his  suite,  excited 
by  the  revelry  of  a  week's  duration, 
mounted  upon  saddleless  horses,  rode 
recklessly  about ;  a  body-guard  of  fifty 
men,  dressed  in  shabby  uniform,  follow- 
ed by  a  multitude,  shouting  and  cheer- 
ing, endeavored  to  keep  pace  with  the 
royal  troop. 

In  September,  Keopuolani  was  taken 
ill ;  all  the  principal  chiefs  assembled  at 
Lahaina  and  wailed  around  her  couch. 
As  her  disease  gained  ground,  the  utmost 
affection  and  grief  were  manifested  by 
all  classes.  Among  the  people,  alarm 
for  the  consequences  of  her  death  pre- 
vailed. Being  the  highest  female  chief, 
the  usual  excesses  were  expected  to 
ensue.  Many  natives  fled  to  the  moun- 
tains ;  the  foreigners  prepared  to  retreat 
to  the  shipping,  and  urged  the  mission- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


rls 


aries  to  follow  their  example.  For  a  year 
previous,  Keopuolani  had  expressed  a 
deep  interest  in  the  instructions  of  the 
missionaries,  and  her  deportment  gave 
evidence  of  a  decided  change  of  charac- 
ter. Having  given  sincere  proofs  of  her 
conversion,  the  rites  of  baptism  were  ad- 
ministered. Her  dying  counsel  was  di- 
rected to  the  religious  welfare  of  her 
relatives  and  people.  She  strove  to  in- 
fluence the  king  to  abandon  his  cups,  and 
for  a  few  weeks  he  continued  perfectly 
sober.  She  enjoined,  and  her  wishes 
were  proclaimed  as  laws  by  Liholiho  and 
Kalaimoku,  that  no  heathen  rites  should 
be  observed  at  her  death.  So  public  an 
example,  from  the  highest  authority,  of 
the  breaking  down  of  usages,  sanctioned 
by  the  custom  of  centuries,  proved  their 
death  blow.  Once  abrogated,  few  could 
regret  the  attendant  disorder,  debauch- 
ery and  crime.  On  the  16th  she  died. 
Her  remains  were  interred  in  accordance 
with  her  desires ;  but  the  deep  wailings 
of  the  people  were  not  to  be  suppressed, 
though  the  rites  of  Christian  sepulture 
were  hers.  The  corpse,  covered  with  a 
rich  pall,  was  borne  by  the  five  queens 
of  Liholiho  and  the  wife  of  Boki ;  around 
it  were  the  family  as  principal  mourners. 
Chiefs  and  people,  foreigners  and  mis- 
sionaries, joined  in  the  procession,  bear- 
ing badges  of  mourning,  while  the  toll- 
ing of  the  bell,  and  the  firing  of  minute 
guns  proclaimed  its  solemn  progress,  un- 
til it  reached  the  stone  tomb  prepared 
for  its  reception.  As  was  customary,  the 
relatives  erected  little  booths  in  its  vicin- 
ity, in  which  they  dwelt  for  a  season. 
The  people  of  the  district  were  employed 
in  removing  the  stones  of  a  dilapidated 
heiau,  to  form  a  wall  around  her  burial 
place.  All  the  chiefs,  except  the  king 
and  Hoapili,  assisted  in  this  labor  with 
their  own  hands ;  and  the  singular  spec- 
tacle was  presented  of  the  portly  Kaahu- 
manu,and  her  almost  equally  bulky  hus- 
band carrying  large  stones,  while  stout 
men  walked  lazily  beside  them,  bearing 
nothing  but  light  feathered  staffs,  the 
badges  of  their  authority. 

Keopuolani  was  born  in  1778;  she  had 
given  birth  to  eleven  children,  of  whom 
Liholiho  was  the  second.  He,  with  the 
young  prince  and  princess  were  all  that 
survived. 

15 


In  proportion  as  the  mission  flourished, 
and  the  doctrines  of  Christianity  began 
to  have  a  perceptible  influence  upon  the 
acts  of  the  government  and  the  character 
of  the  nation,  in  like  manner  did  the  op- 
position increase.  JNo  artifice  was  too 
low,  nor  falsehood  too  gross,  for  its  pur- 
poses. In  most  cases,  the  vileness  of  the 
one,  and  the  shallowness  of  the  other, 
defeated  their  design.  As  the  narrative 
proceeds,  the  nature  and  design  of  the 
enmity  to  the  spread  of  Christianity  will 
be  more  clearly  seen.  Originating,  as 
has  been  shown,  in  a  few  vagabonds,  the 
contamination  gradually  spread  to  per- 
sons, if  not  of  better  principles,  of  more 
knowledge ;  and  the  falsities  so  diligent- 
ly uttered  by  the  former,  found  their 
way  into  journals  and  reviews,  whose 
editors  would  have  shrunk  from  contact 
with  their  authors,  as  from  plague-spots, 
had  they  but  known  them.  In  no  place 
has  the  triumph  of  the  cross  been  more 
signal  than  at  the  Hawaiian  Islands ;  in 
none  other  has  enmity  been  more  bit- 
terly manifested.  Instead  of  adducing 
arguments  against  supposed  faults  of 
the  system,  or  affording  any  tangible 
ground  on  which  to  base  an  attack,  the 
characters  of  its  advocates  were  assailed 
by  the  grossest  calumnies,  and  the  faith 
and  resolution  of  its  converts,  by  the 
most  artful  designs.  Those  who  so 
prominently  figured  in  these  attempts, 
had  the  satisfaction  occasionally  to  wit- 
ness the  instructions  of  the  benevolent 
made  abortive,  and  grief,  misery  and 
shame  carried  into  families  which  else 
would  have  continued  in  well-doing. 
While  the  death-bed  scene  remained 
fresh  in  the  memory  of  the  king,  his 
conduct  was  that  of  a  reclaimed  man ; 
but  in  an  evil  hour,  he  listened  to  the 
desires  of  some  whites,  who  persuaded 
him  to  visit  a  vessel,  under  the  pretence 
of  showing  him  some  new  goods.  Sev- 
eral dinner  parties  had  been  provided 
for  him  previously  on  the  Sabbath,  wrhich 
he  had  uniformly  declined  attending. 
But  in  this  instance,  suspecting  no  sinis- 
ter object,  he  went  on  board.  The  favor- 
ite liquors  were  proffered,  which  he  re- 
fused. A  bottle  of  cherry -brandy  was 
then  produced,  an  article  he  had  never 
seen,  and  which,  being  told  it  would  not 
intoxicate,  he  tasted.  The  insatiable 


114 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLAND 3. 


thirst  was  aroused,  and  his  entertainers 
plied  the  glasses  until  the  king,  request- 
ing some  to  carry  ashore,  prepared  for  a 
revel.  Not  content  with  this,  the  sacred 
forms  of  religion  were  made  a  scorn 
and  by-word.  One  chief  was  taught  to 
call  his  fellow,  as  a  nickname,  Jehovah. 
A  foreigner  engaged  in  mock  prayer 
before  Kuakini,  while  another  wrote  the 
vilest  words  of  the  English  language 
for  his  perusal. 

Hoapili  set  an  example  of  further  in- 
novation upon  their  customs.  Instead 
of  selecting  a  number  of  wives  as  soon 
as  the  corpse  of  his  consort  was  re- 
moved, to  be  changed  at  will,  he  waited 
more  than  a  month,  and  then  was  joined 
in  matrimony  to  Kalakua,  who  took  the 
name  of  Hoapiliwahine.  The  ceremony 
was  performed  October  19th,  in  church, 
by  the  Rev.  Wm.  JRichards.  This  was 
the  more  to  his  credit,  as  there  were 
five  candidates  for  his  household  from 
among  the  highest  females. 

About  this  time,  Liholiho  began  to 
entertain  a  design  of  visiting  England 
and  the  United  States.  Beside  the 
natural  curiosity  for  viewing  foreign 
lands,  he  was  desirous  of  an  interview 
with  the  governments,  and  entering  into 
formal  relations  with  them.  In  October, 
a  council  was  held  at  Lahaina,  in  which, 
after  a  full  discussion,  it  was  decided 
that  he  should  embark  in  the  English 
ship  EAigle,  Captain  Starbuck.  Ka- 
mamalu,  his  favorite  wife,  Bold  and 
Liliha,  Kapihe  and  Kekuanaoa,  with  a 
Steward  and  a  few  male  servants,  were 
to  accompany  him.  It  was  the  wish  of 
the  king  and  the  chiefs,  that  Mr.  Ellis 
should  go  with  him  to  act  as  interpreter 
and  counselor.  A  large  sum  was  offered 
for  his  passage.  Captain  Starbuck  al- 
ledging  his  inability  to  provide  accom- 
modations for  his  family,  he  was  com- 
pelled to  remain.  Kauikeouli  was  ap- 
pointed successor  to  the  throne  in  case 
the  king  never  returned,  and  Was  also 
made  heir  to  his  private  lands.  The 
government  was  to  be  administered  by 
the  chiefs  in  council,  the  regency  being 
invested  in  Kaahumanu,  with  Kalaimo- 
ku  as  prime  minister.  November  18th, 
the  royal  train  went  on  board  the 
LJ Aigle^  and  under  a  salute  from  all 
the  snipping  and  batteries,  sailed  in  com* 


pany  with  ten  other  vessels  for  Oahu. 
On  the  27th,  the  L'Aigle  left  Honolulu, 
amid  the  sad  forebodings  of  the  people. 
Kamamalu  remained  on  shore  to  the 
last,  mingling  her  tears  with  those  of 
her  attendants,  to  whom  her  amiability 
and  attention  to  domestic  concerns  had 
greatly  endeared  her.  Before  stepping 
into  the  boat,  after  the  manner  of  her 
forefathers,  she  thus  chanted  her  fare- 
well :  "  O  !  heaven ;  O  !  earth ;  O  ! 
mountains ;  O  !  sea ;  O  !  my  counselors 
and  my  subjects,  farewell.  O !  thou 
land  for  which  my  father  suffered,  the 
object  of  toil  which  my  father  sought. 
We  now  leave  thy  soil;  I  follow  thy 
command;  I  will  never  disregard  thy 
voice;  I  will  walk  by  the  command 
which  thou  hast  given  me."  Salutes 
were  fired,  and  the  ship  soon  disap- 
peared before  a  favorable  breeze. 

While  preparations  for  sailing  were 
being  made,  Rives,  the  Frenchman,  en- 
deavored to  persuade  his  royal  master 
to  permit  him  to  join  the  train.  Not 
wishing  to  disgrace  his  retinue  by  such 
an  appendage,  he  refused;  but  Rives 
managed  to  convey  himself  aboard  by 
stealth,  and  after  the  vessel  was  under- 
way, baggageless  as  he  was,  contrived 
to  secure  permission  to  remain.  Boki, 
though  of  inferior  talents  to  his  brother, 
was  as  good  a  specimen  of  the  chiefs,  as 
Kamamalu  of  the  beauties  of  her  native 
islands.  She  was  then  twenty-six  years 
of  age. 

Upon  the  first  arrival  of  the  mission 
families,  they  suffered  from  the  thieving 
propensities  of  the  natives,  who  did  not 
consider  it  disgraceful  to  pilfer  from  the 
whites,  as  they  had  so  much  property ; 
even  the  chiefs  indulged  in  the  practice, 
and  kept  professed  thieves.  But  as  they 
became  convinced  of  its  dishonesty,  they 
exerted  themselves  to  eradicate  the  habit. 
The  most  decisive  measure  for  its  sup- 
pression, was  performed  in  December  of 
this  year  by  the  young  prince.  His 
JCahii,  to  whom  he  was  strongly  at- 
tached, and  who  had  borne  him  in  his 
arms  since  his  birth,  was  detected  in 
stealing.  The  prince  immediately  ex- 
pelled him  from  his  household  and  gave 
the  office  to  another  petty  chief. 

At  Kailua,  Kuakini  built  a  house  of 
worship  within  the  inclosure  of  a  ruined 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


115 


temple,  at  which  the  average  attendance 
on  the  Sabbath  was  eight  hundred. — 
Other  chiefs  united  with  him  in  enforc- 
ing the  observance  of  the  day.  Kapio- 
lani  dismissed  all  of  her  husbands  but 
Naihe;  became  temperate,  and  to  her 
death,  in  1841,  was  a  sincere  believer. 
No  other  female  adopted  more  thoroughly 
the  habits  of  civilized  life.  Her  house 
was  tastefully  arranged  and  furnished, 
and  she  was  excelled  by  none  in  neat- 
ness, and  attention  to  all  her  duties. 

Keeaumoku,  governor  of  Kauai,  died 
on  March  23d,  1824.  On  the  26th  of 
the  following  May,  the  ex-king  of  Kauai 
breathed  his  last.  No  chief  had  won 
more  upon  the  affections  of  the  mission- 
aries. He  had  been  an  intelligent  con- 
vert, and,  toward  the  latter  part  of  his 
life,  was  active  in  exhorting  his  country- 
men to  cast  aside  their  vain  supersti- 
tions and  embrace  the  truth.  He  was 
remarkable  for  his  personal  beauty  and 
dignified  and  gentlemanly  manners. — 
His  dominions  were  bequeathed  to  Liho- 
liho,  to  be  held  in  trust  by  Kaahumanu 
and  Kalaimoku.  According  to  his  last 
request,  his  remains  were  carried  to  La- 
haina,  and  deposited  by  the  side  of  Keo- 
puolani,  to  whom  he  had  been  closely 
united  in  friendship. 

On  the  30th,  the  chapel  at  Honolulu 
was  destroyed  by  an  incendiary;  Kalai- 
moku, in  a  few  weeks,  caused  another 
and  more  spacious  one  to  be  erected. 

When  the  news  of  the  death  of  Kau- 
mualii  reached  Kauai,  the  people  broke 
through  all  restraint  and  renewed  their 
heathen  practices.  Riot,  pillage,  licen- 
tiousness, knocking  out  of  teeth,  and 
mutilation  of  limbs,  spread  over  the  isl- 
and. During  this  general  anarchy  they 
prepared  for  war,  as  it  was  thought  a 
favorable  time  to  throw  off  the  yoke. 
The  nephew  of  Kalaimoku,  Kahalaia,  a 
cruel  and  weak  man,  had  been  appointed 
governor.  No  sooner  had  he  landed 
than  the  Kauaians  manifested  their  de- 
testation of  him  by  the  destruction  of 
public  property  and  other  acts  of  insub- 
ordination. In  two  weeks,  Kalaimoku, 
accompanied  by  Kekauluohi,  arrived  to 
receive  the  submission  of  the  chiefs,  ar- 
range the  affairs  of  the  island  and  look 
after  the  wreck  of  the  Pride  of  Hawaii. 
On  landing  at  Hanalei,  they  narrowly 


escaped  seizure  and  assassination.  In 
a  council  at  VVaimea,  the  Kauai  chiefs 
demanded  a  new  division  of  lands  and 
property,  which  Kalaimoku,  in  obedience 
to  the  will  of  Kaumualii,  refused. 

George  Kaumualii,  or  Humehume,  as 
he  was  called  by  his  countrymen,  had 
rapidly  degenerated  in  character  since 
his  arrival.  Elated  by  the  honors  con- 
ferred upon  him,  he  aspired  to  greater 
consequence.  Upon  the  arrival  of  Ka- 
laimoku at  Waimea,  he  with  other  chiefs 
hastened  to  tender  their  gifts.  Kiaima- 
kani,  the  most  active  of  the  dissatisfied 
chiefs,  meeting  them,  proposed  to  pro- 
claim Humehume  their  ruler. — "  Come 
with  us — you  shall  be  our  king;  the 
islands  are  yours,  as  they  were  your 
father's.  Much  will  we  fight  for  you." 
He  immediately  joined  their  party.  On 
the  8th  of  August  Humehume,  at  the 
head  of  a  numerous  but  undisciplined 
band,  attacked  the  fort  at  Wairnea.  The 
rebels  suddenly  entering  the  gates,  got 
possession  of  the  magazine  and  armory. 
Instead  of  following  up  their  success  by 
quietly  putting  to  death  the  few  soldiers 
that  were  mostly  sleeping  or  but  half 
armed,  the  principal  part  of  the  garrison 
being  encamped  outside  with  Kalaimo- 
ku, they  vain-gloriously  fired  their  guns. 
This  aroused  the  main  body,  who  join- 
ing those  inside  the  fort,  after  some 
sharp  fighting,  and  losing  six  of  their 
number,  drove  the  rebels  out,  with  the 
loss  of  ten.  In  this  attack,  Kalaimoku 
narrowly  escaped  with  his  life.  Among 
the  killed  on  his  side  were  two  English- 
men. Messrs.  Bingham  and  Whitney, 
with  their  families,  resided  in  a  house 
near  the  walls,  and  were  repeatedly  en- 
dangered by  the  balls  of  both  parties. 
As  soon  as  the  fight  terminated,  Kalai- 
moku sent  for  them,  knowing  that  they 
would  be  exposed  to  the  fury  of  the 
disappointed  chiefs  who  were  mostly 
pagans.  As  he  was  still  closely  besieged 
in  the  fort,  he  advised  them  to  take  pas- 
sage in  the  schooner  which  he  was  on 
the  point  of  despatching  for  Oahu  with 
news  of  the  insurrection.  Accordingly 
they  embarked ;  with  them  went  a  fine 
looking  young  chief,  who  had  been  made 
prisoner.  Knowing  the  fate  that  awaited 
him,  he  requested  to  be  shot,  but  was 
carried  on  board  and  confined.  When 


116 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


midway  between  the  two  islands,  he  was  |  kindness  to  him  was  unremitting,  both 
sent  for;  "  I  know  what  you  want,"  he  j  for  the  sake  of  his  old  friend  the  late 
replied,  as  he  manfully  ascended  the  j  king,  and  a  feeling  of  compassion  for 
companion-ladder.  Hardly  had  his  feet  j  the  folly  and  indiscretion  of  George, 
touched  the  deck,  when  a  knife  was  who  had  been  made  a  mere  tool  in  the 
passed  through  him,  and  his  body  im-  hands  of  the  conspirators.  He  kept  him 
mediately  thrown  overboard.  A  number  j  near  his  person,  and  allowed  him  only 
of  lesser  note  were  served  in  the  same  !  to  eat  of  the  food  prepared  for  himself, 
manner ;  a  method  of  disposing  of  state  I  for  there  were  many  who  desired  to 
prisoners  which  had  been  adopted  in  take  his  life,  and  would  not  have  hesi- 
lieu  of  the  former  sacrifices.  tated  at  treachery  when  force  was  found 

Had  the  widow  of  Kaumualii,  the  re-  j  unavailing.      Kalaimoku    shortly    after 
pudiated  Kapule,  who  was  greatly  be-   sent   him   to  Honolulu,  where  he  con 


loved,  joined  the  rebels,  the  consequences 
would  have  been  much  more  serious. 
Her  loyalty  and  firmness  preserved  many 
true  to  the  will  of  their  late  king ;  and 
her  exertions,  though  poorly  repaid,  were 
considered  as  highly  serviceable.  The 
news  of  the  war  created  a  great  excite- 
ment at  the  windward  islands.  When 
the  intelligence  reached  Oahu,  the  en- 
thusiasm was  so  great  that  the  people 
rushed  to  the  fort  and  demanded  arms, 
that  they  might  embark  immediately  for 
Kauai.  Runners  spread  the  cry  of 
"  rebellion  "  over  the  island.  The  ves- 
sels in  the  harbor  were  quickly  filled 
with  warriors,  who  embarked  in  such 
haste  as  almost  to  neglect  arming  them- 
selves, and  without  provisions  of  any 
kind,  they  sailed  without  delay  for  the 
seat  of  war.  One  was  detained  to  carry 
arms  and  munitions.  The  chiefs  pre- 
pared energetically  to  crush  the  insur- 
rection, but  the  people,  in  many  places 
left  to  themselves,  indulged  in  riot  and 
dissipation.  A  thousand  warriors,  headed 
by  Hoapili,  Kahekili  and  Kaikioewa,  re- 
inforced Kalaimoku.  A  skirmish  en- 
sued between  the  hostile  parties  at  Wa- 
hiawa;  the  numbers  and  ardor  of  the 
government  troops  soon  dispersed  the 
rebels,  and  they  fled  in  all  directions, 
leaving  the  ground  strewn  with  slain, 
among  whom  was  Kiaimakani.  In  the 
action  and  pursuit  one  hundred  and 

thirty  were  slaughtered  ;  of  the  loyalists  |  amination  of  schools,  Kaahumanu  was 
but  one  fell.  George  Kaumualii  fled  to  the  first  pupil  examined.  A  feeble  at- 
the  mountains,  where  after  enduring  tempt  was  made,  by  a  few  individuals 
great  misery  and  privation  for  two  of  rank,  whose  desires  yearned  toward 
months,  he  was  captured.  Kalaimoku  the  old  deeds  of  revelry,  to  revive  dances 
had  issued  the  most  positive  orders,  that  and  other  idolatrous  practices.  The 
he  should  be  taken  alive  and  unharmed,  !  young  princess  was  persuaded  to  engage 
even  if  he  made  resistance  to  the  at-  in  a  heathen  sacrifice.  Wahinepio,  sis- 
tacking  party.  After  his  capture,  his  I  ter  .to  Kalaimoku,  was  the  most  active 


tinued  in  honorable  captivity  until  his 
death,  which  happened  not  long  after. 

After  the  first  resentment  had  sub- 
sided, the  victors  treated  the  conquered 
with  a  moderation  before  unknown  in 
their  contests.  This  was  owing  to  the 
advice  of  the  missionaries,  who  on  this 
occasion  openly  counseled  them  "  to 
proceed  with  confidence  and  courage — 
that  a  just  God  would  give  them  the 
victory  since  the  blame  was  evidently 
on  the  side  of  the  enemy."  Kaahumanu 
and  the  other  principal  chiefs  arriving 
at  Kauai,  a  grand  council  was  held  for 
the  final  settlement  of  the  island.  It 
was  formally  annexed  to  the  kingdom  of 
Liholiho,  and  Kaikioewa  appointed  gov- 
ernor. The  disaffected  chiefs  and  their 
tenants  were  distributed  among  the 
other  islands,  where  it  would  be  impos- 
sible for  them  to  combine  in  another 
conspiracy.  Their  lands  were  divided 
among  the  loyal  favorites  and  chiefs, 
who  filled  the  minor  offices  with  their 
creatures.  The  poor  serfs  were  looked 
upon  in  the  contemptuous  light  of  con- 
quered rebels,  and  for  many  years 
groaned  under  the  heavy  exactions  of 
their  new  lords. 

The  desire  of  education  daily  grew 
more  popular.  Before  the  expiration  of 
the  year,  two  thousand  had  learned  to 
read,  and  fifty  natives  were  qualified  as 
elementary  teachers.  At  a  public  ex- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


Ill 


of  this  party,  which  originated  from  a 
lingering  faith  in  the  superstition  of 
"  praying  to  death."  Whatever  belonged 
to  a  chief  was  carefully  disposed  of,  to 
prevent  any  one  inimical  from  obtaining 
an  article  which  would  give  them  the 
power  of  causing  a  mortal  illness.  A 
portion  of  the  wardrobe  of  the  princess 
which  had  been  cast  aside,  was  secretly 
buried  in  the  sea ;  but  one  of  the  dresses, 
it  was  supposed,  had  been  stolen  by  a 
sorcerer,  and  her  attendants  prevailed 
upon  her  to  offer  a  sacrifice,  as  the  only 
means  of  averting  the  evil.  This  was 
covertly  done  at  a  village  eight  miles 
from  Lahaina;  that  place  being  sup- 
posed to  be  too  much  under  the  influ- 
ence of  Jehovah  to  ensure  success.  This 
is  only  worthy  of  note  as  being  the  last 
heathen  rite  of  this  character,  sanc- 
tioned by  the  authority  of  a  high  chief. 
The  principal  rulers  not  only  were 
now  favorers  of  the  mission,  but  sincere 
converts  to  Christianity.  Old  as  were 
many,  they  acquired  the  art  of  writing, 
and  wrote  letters  of  gratitude  to  the 
patrons  of  the  mission  in  America.  That 
fierce  warrior  and  sagacious  statesman, 
Kalaimoku,  gave  the  last  hours  of  his 
active  life  to  the  support  of  its  doctrines. 
By  example,  he  exhibited  their  benefi- 
cial effects,  and  by  authority,  brought 
their  influence  to  bear  upon  the  nation. 
But  no  brighter  change  was  seen,  than 
in  Kaahumanu.  In  the  days  of  her 
heathenism,  she  was  a  cruel,  haughty, 
imperious  woman;  the  glance  of  her 
angry  eye  carried  terror  to  all  her  obse- 
quious and  crouching  vassals ;  not  a 
subject,  however  high  his  station,  dared 
face  her  frown.  Many  suffered  death  in 
her  moments  of  irritation :  her  carriage 
was  pride  itself;  for  among  those  who 
held  rank  in  the  greatest  estimation,  she 
was  the  proudest.  Though  friendly  at 
first  to  the  missionaries,  her  deportment 
was  lofty  and  disdainful.  Their  courte- 
sies were  met  with  an  averted  eye,  and 
her  little  finger  simply  extended  to  a 
proffered  hand.  Her  decision,  energy 
and  ability,  united  as  they  were  in  har- 
mony with  the  experience  and  good 
judgment  of  Kalaimoku,  extricated  the 
nation  from  difficulties  into  which  it 
was  frequently  involved,  by  the  follies 
and  extravagance  of  the  king.  Their 


sternness  humbled  the  most  rebellious, 
and  preserved  order  amid  many  trying 
scenes.  By  them  the  designs  of  evil- 
minded  foreigners  were  nipped  in  the 
bud;  their  cunning  and  temptations 
availing  little  against  the  superior  pene- 
tration of  these  chiefs. 

After  her  conversion r  her  violent  pas- 
sions were  checked;  the  cold  and  con- 
temptuous behavior  gave  way  before  the 
strong,  natural  flow  of  affection.  To 
the  missionaries  she  became  warmly  at- 
tached ;  and  among  her  own  people,  and 
even  foreigners,  her  character  was  so 
entirely  altered,  her  deportment  so  con- 
sistent with  the  principles  of  her  faith, 
that  none  could  doubt  its  sincerity.  "  The 
new  and  good  Kaahumanu,"  passed  into 
a  proverb. 

The  same  activity  and  firmness  which 
were  infused  into  all  her  former  acts, 
became  united  with  real  desires  for  the 
welfare  of  her  subjects.  Close  attention 
was  given  to  all  affairs  of  government. 
Idols  were  ferreted  out  and  destroyed ; 
the  people  exhorted  to  forsake  their 
vices,  and  schools  encouraged.  The 
machinery  of  the  old  system,  which 
centered  all  power  in  the  hands  of  the 
chiefs,  in  whom,  it  may  with  propriety 
be  said  the  nation  was  individualized, 
was  brought  to  aid  the  moral  reform. 
The  will  of  the  rulers  being  the  will  of 
the  populace,  the  revolution  that  followed 
was  not  surprising.  As  the  weather- 
cock is  affected  by  the  wind,  so  was 
public  opinion  at  this  era,  by  the  exam- 
ple of  the  chiefs.  Providentially,  they 
had  become  Christians.  Its  pure  doc- 
trines were  manifested  in  the  lives  of  a 
few  of  all  degrees,  but  with  the  mass  it 
was  an  external  habit,  like  the  clothes 
borrowed  from  civilization.  For  centu- 
ries the  temporal  and  spiritual  govern- 
ments had  been  closely  united.  As  it 
was  impossible  to  enlighten  the  minds 
of  the  chiefs  in  the  same  ratio  as  their 
morals,  or  at  once  to  infuse  into  mon- 
archists the  democratic  tendencies  of 
the  age,  this  same  principle  was  incor- 
porated with  all  their  new  acts.  So 
habituated  had  they  become  to  swaying 
the  public  by  simple  expressions  of  will, 
that  in  their  zeal  for  the  diffusion  of 
Christianity,  they  blindly  pursued  the 
same  course.  In  moral  deg;adation,the 


118 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


minds  of  all  had  heretofore  been  upon  a 
level,  and  it  was  as  easy  to  agitate  the 
mass  by  an  edict  or  example,  as  to  stir 
the  waters  of  a  calm  lake  by  the  casting 
of  a  stone.  But  there  now  existed  a 
wide  difference.  The  gale  in  its  violence 
may  flatten  the  sea,  but  when  it  lulls,  the 
commotion  becomes  deeper  and  stronger 
than  before.  It  will  be  perceived  that, 
whenever  the  powerful  arm  of  govern- 
ment was  manifested,  vice  and  corruption 
cowed  their  heads  and  pursued  their  ends 
covertly ;  a  great  apparent  moral  revo- 
lution occurred,  which  the  missionaries, 
not  rightly  understanding,  were  led  to 
exaggerate. 

At  this  time  commenced  the  cry  against 
the  missionaries,  that  they  meddled  in 
government  affairs.  So  far  as  their  in- 
fluence affected  the  chiefs  this  was  true. 
That  they  gave  advice  in  emergencies, 
when  asked,  is  evident  from  the  humane 
influence  they  exerted,  and  the  encour- 
agement they  afforded  the  loyal  chiefs  in 
the  late  rebellion  at  Kauai.  It  may  be 
that  they  were  not  always  sufficiently 
frank  and  open  in  it,  and  shrunk  unneces- 
sarily from  encountering  boldly  the  oppo- 
sition when  their  assistance  would  have 
been  serviceable  to  the  chiefs ;  or  they 
rendered  it  in  too  cautious  and  non-com- 
mittal a  manner  for  it  to  avail  much  at  a 
crisis,  though  it  effected  much  in  the  gen- 
eral issue.  The  charge  was  raised  by 
the  same  class  of  individuals  who  as  ac- 
tively endeavored  to  corrupt  the  chiefs. 
They  had  perseveringly  tried  to  influ- 
ence the  government  to  continue  in  vice ; 
yet  with  an  inconsistency  to  which  they 
seem  to  have  been  entirely  blind,  they 
charged  those  whose  lives  and  instruc- 
tions were  devoted  to  removing  evil,  with 
endeavoring  unworthily  to  effect  what 
they  were  themselves  pursuing.  In  the 
struggle,  religion  prevailed,  and  the  dis- 
comfitted  assailants  at  once  exclaimed, 
church  and  state ;  by-words  well  calcu- 
lated to  impress  those  ignorant  of  the 
nature  of  the  Hawaiian  policy,  with  the 
idea  that  the  missionaries  sought  to  in- 
corporate the  two,  and  fatten  upon  both. 
They  found  them  united  by  the  alliance 
of  ages  ;  it  is  not  politic,  even  if  possi- 
ble, for  man  rudely  to  sweep  away  the 
prejudices  of  a  nation.  It  will  be  found 
that,  although  the  missionaries  erred  in 


judgment  in  some  points,  the  general 
influence  of  their  body,  as  it  increased, 
was  to  widen  these  distinctions  and  en- 
large the  liberty  of  the  subject.  In  the 
early  stage  of  their  career,  the  strong 
attachment  of  the  rulers  to  their  teach- 
ers, and  the  inseparable  policy  of  the 
government  with  the  religion  it  fostered, 
caused  its  precepts  to  be  felt  in  every 
political  movement  ;  the  missionaries 
were  truly  and  rightfully  the  active  cau- 
ses ;  but  with  the  authorities  lay  the 
errors  of  execution. 

No  more  positive  proof  exists,  of  the 
hold  which  the  mission  was  acquiring  in 
the  affections  of  the  government,  and 
their  appreciation  of  its  motives,  than 
the  liberal  aid  furnished  in  furtherance 
of  their  views,  and  in  securing  suitable 
accommodations  for  their  families.  In 
March,  1825,  the  whaler  Almira  arrived, 
bringing  supplies  gratuitously  for  the 
mission.  As  soon  as  this  fact  was  made 
known  to  Kalaimoku,  he  remitted  one 
half  the  customary  harbor  fees.  She  also 
brought  intelligence  of  the  deaths  of 
Liholiho  and  Kamamalu.  Kaahumanu 
and  Kalaimoku  immediately  proposed  to 
address  prayers  to  Almighty  God  ;  they 
wrote  also  to  the  governors  of  the  differ- 
ent islands,  to  unite  in  humbling  them- 
selves before  Heaven,  to  preserve  order 
among  their  people,  and  to  await  the 
summons  for  a  general  council.  The 
letters  were  signed  by  Kauikeouli,  who, 
in  his  official  acts,  assumed  the  title  of 
Kamehameha  III.  The  will  of  the  late 
king  in  regard  to  the  succession,  which 
delivered  the  kingdom  in  trust  to  Kaahu- 
manu and  Kalaimoku,  for  the  young 
prince,  being  well  understood,  was  quiet- 
ly acquiesced  in. 

On  the  16th  of  April,  JRichard  Charl- 
ton,  Esq.,  with  his  lady  and  her  sister, 
arrived  at  Honolulu.  They  were  the 
first  European  women  who  became  resi- 
dents. He  immediately  assumed  the 
duties  of  his  office  of  Consul  for  the 
Hawaiian  and  Society  groups,  to  which 
he  had  been  appointed  by  the  govern- 
ment of  England. 


BISTORY   OF  TEE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


119 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Liholiho's  passage  to  England — Attention  shown  to  the 
party — Death  of  King  and  dueen — Boki's  interview 
with  George  IV.— Blonde  frigate— Arrival  at  La- 
haina  —  Honolulu  —  Funeral  Obsequies — Council  of 
State — Speeches— Kaahumanu  and  Kalaimoku  pro- 
claimed Regents  —  Idolatry  existing  in  Hawaii — 
Courage  of  Kapiolani— Singular  Creed— Outrages  of 
foreign  Captains  at  Lahaina— United  States  schoon- 
er Dolphin  at  Honolulu,  1826— Triumph  of  the  liberal 
party — U.  S.  ship  Peacock — Origin  and  structure  of 
parties— Character  of  English  Consul— His  policy- 
Death  of  Kalaimoku,  1827— Laws  enacted— Opposi- 
tion of  foreigners. 

THE  motives  which  occasioned  the  re- 
fusal of  Captain  Starbuck  to  allow  the 
passage  of  Mr.  Ellis,  were  soon  apparent. 
The  king  had  placed  on  board  twenty- 
five  thousand  dollars  in  specie  to  pay  his 
expenses;  the  regulating  of  which  the 
captain  wished  to  secure  to  himself.  As- 
sisted by  Rives,  whom  the  historian  of 
the  voyage  describes  as  possessing  a 
"  low,  cunning,  and  profligate  nature," 
Liholiho  was  allured  to  his  old  practices 
of  gambling  and  intoxication.  The  ship 
put  into  Rio  Janeiro  for  a  short  period. 
The  consul-general  of  England  gave  a 
ball  for  the  entertainment  of  their  Ha- 
waiian majesties,  and  the  Emperor,  Don 
Pedro,  treated  them  with  distinguished 
attention.  On  the  22d  of  May,  1824,  Cap- 
tain Starbuck  landed  his  passengers  at 
Portsmouth,  England,  without  making 
any  provision  for  their  comfort.  The  gov- 
ernment were  apprised  of  their  arrival 
through  the  kindness  of  the  owners  of  the 
ship.  The  Hon.  F.  Byng  immediately 
received  the  appointment  of  guardian  to 
the  royal  cortege,  and  quarters  were  pro- 
vided for  them  at  Osborne's  hotel,  Lon- 
don. Their  cash  chests  were  forwarded 
to  the  Bank  of  England.  On  being  open- 
ed, but  ten  thousand  dollars  were  found ; 
of  the  remainder,  no  account  was  given 
by  the  captain,  except  a  bill  of  three 
thousand  dollars  for  expenses  incurred 
at  Rio.* 

The  appearance  of  the  royal  travelers, 
before  suitable  dresses  were  provided, 
was,  for  London  something  novel. 
Kamamalu  exhibited  herself  in  loose 
trowsers,  and  a  long  bed-gown  of  colored 
velveteen ;  Liliha,  in  a  similar  costume. 
However,  the  tailors  soon  fitted  the  males 
to  the  newest  cut ;  and  Parisian  modistes 
clothed  the  ladies  in  accordance  with  the 
court  fashion  of  the  day.  Corsets  for  the 
first  time  encircled  their  ample  waists ; 


*  Voyage  of  the  Blonde,  p. 


and  the  London  fair,  in  their  rage  for 
the  strangers,  sought  patterns  of  the  tur- 
ban that  graced  the  brow  of  the  queen. 
The  contrast  between  the  simple  malo 
of  their  deceased  father,  and  the  splendid 
habiliments  with  which  his  children  were 
clothed,  must  have  excited  curious  re- 
flections in  the  minds  of  their  attendants. 
They  behaved,  however,  with  propriety ; 
though  on  one  occasion  one  of  the  party 
seeing  a  mullet,  which  resembled  the 
species  found  in  their  island  waters,  seiz- 
ed it  with  avidity,  and  hurried  home, 
where  the  impatience  of  the  royal  guests 
would  not  await  its  dressing.  It  was  de- 
voured raw,  and  no  doubt  was  the  most 
savory  morsel  they  tasted  while  abroad. 


Rives  was  dismissed  from  his  office  of 
interpreter,  on  account  of  repeated  ill- 
behavior,  and  James  Young,  a  son  of  the 
favorite  of  Kamehameha  I.,  was  appoint- 
ed in  his  place.  The  nobility  bestowed 
many  flattering  attentions  upon  the  par- 
ty. Their  pictures  were  to  be  found  in 
every  shop  window,  and  the  lions  of  the 
moment  were  the  savage  king  and  queen 
of  the  islands  discovered  by  Cook.  They 
were  feasted  and  flattered ;  taken  to  the 
shows  and  sights  of  the  metropolis,  and 
hurried  from  one  route  to  another  with 
an  activity  which  their  ensouciant  dispo- 
sitions and  tropical  constitutions  were 
poorly  calculated  to  sustain.  The  chapel 
of  Henry  VII.,  the  burial-place  of  Eng- 
land's sovereigns,  Liholiho  could  not  be 
prevailed  upon  to  enter,  esteeming  it  too 
sacred  to  be  profaned  by  the  foot  of  even 
a  brother  monarch. 

On  the  12th  of  June,  Manui,the  stew- 


120 


HISTORY  OF  TUE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


ard  was  attacked  by  the  measles;  the 
next  day,  the  king  sickened,  and  by  the 
19th,  all  of  the  party  were  afflicted  with 
the  same  disease.  Dr.  Holland  attended 
them ;  but  in  a  few  days  the  queen  be- 
came dangerously  ill,  and  a  consultation 
of  physicians  was  held.  Boki  and  Ke- 
kuanaoa  rapidly  recovered,  and  Kapihe 
soon  grew  better.  On  the  4th  of  July, 
Liholiho  was  sufficiently  well  to  give  an 
audience  to  the  newly  appointed  consul 
to  his  dominions.  By  the  8th,  no  hopes 
of  the  queen  were  entertained.  The 
mutual  grief  of  the  royal  couple  was  af- 
fecting. They  held  each  other  in  a 
warm  and  protracted  embrace,  while  the 
thought  of  dying  so  early  in  her  career, 
so  far  from  her  loved  islands  and  friends, 
caused  the  tears  to  gush  freely.  In  the 
evening  she  died.  This  sad  event  so 
affected  the  depressed  spirits  of  the  king, 
that  although  hopes  of  his  recovery  had 
been  entertained,  he  sank  rapidly,  and 
on  the  14th,  after  much  severe  suffering, 
breathed  his  last.  Previous  to  his  death 
he  drew  up  a  rough  memorandum,  in 
which  he  expressed  his  wish  to  have  his 
body  and  that  of  his  consort  conveyed  to 
their  native  land;  his  personal  effects 
he  distributed  among  his  retinue. 


KAMAMALIT. 

The  survivors  received  much  kind- 
ness, and  were  taken  to  such  places  as 
were  calculated  to  enlighten  their  minds, 
and  give  them  favorable  impressions  of 
the  power  and  civilization  of  England. 
On  the  llth  of  September,  George  IV. 
granted  them  an  interview  at  Windsor, 
in  which  he  received  them  courteously, 
and  promised  protection,  should  any 
power  manifest  a  disposition  to  encroach 
upon  the  sovereignty  of  their  islands. 


Canning,  also,  was  friendly,  and  held 
frequent  conversations  with  the  party. 
All  their  expenses  were  provided  for  by 
government,  and  the  money  lodged  in 
the  bank  of  England,  returned  to  them, 
which  they  expended  in  presents  for 
their  friends  at  home. 

The  frigate  Blonde,  commanded  by 
Lord  Byron,  was  ordered  to  convey  to 
Oahu,  the  remains  of  the  sovereigns, 
which  had  been  deposited  in  lead  coffins, 
enclosed  in  wood,  covered  with  crimson 
velvet,  and  richly  ornamented.  Suitable 
inscriptions  in  English  and  Hawaiian, 
gave  the  rank  and  age  of  the  deceased. 
Boki  and  his  followers,  embarked  at 
Portsmouth,  on  the  28th  of  September. 
On  their  voyage  they  had  an  opportu- 
nity of  observing  several  other  coun- 
tries. The  frigate  touched  at  Eio,  St. 
Catherines  and  at  Valparaiso,  where 
Kapihe  died;  also,  at  Callao  and  the 
Galapagos ;  thence  they  sailed  to  La- 
haina,  Maui.  Before  their  arrival,  Li- 
liha  and  Kekuanaoa,  were  baptized,  at 
their  request,  by  the  chaplain,  Lord 
Byron  standing  sponsor. 

On  the  4th  of  May,  1825,  the  Blonde 
came  in  sight  of  Lahaina.  A  boat  put 
off  from  the  frigate,  containing  Boki  and 
his  consort,  and  their  suite.  The  cry 
spread  through  the  village,  "  it  is  Boki, 
it  is  Boki ; "  and  thousands  thronged 
the  shore  to  await  his  landing.  Some 
began  to  wail;  Hoapili,  the  father  of 
Liliha,  took  a  seat  upon  the  beach.  As 
she  approached  the  crowd  opened  a  pas- 
sage for  her  into  the  centere  of  the 
circle.  The  wailing  gradually  increas- 
ed, until  her  venerable  parent  rose  from 
his  chair,  and,  in  the  words  of  an  eye 
witness,  "  with  a  roar  which  scarcely 
resembled  the  human  voice,"  embraced 
his  daughter.  The  princess  Nahiena- 
ena  then  threw  herself  into  Liliha's  arms. 
Hoapili,  unable  longer  to  restrain  his 
emotion,  cast  himself  on  the  dirt  at 
Boki's  feet,  literally  scouring  his  face  in 
the  sand.  His  example  was  followed 
by  all  the  veterans  of  the  court,  and  the 
assembled  multitude  broke  forth  into  a 
wail,  which  drowning  the  roar  of  the 
surf,  echoed  over  the  hills  and  carried 
the  tidings  far  and  wide. 

Boki  was  the  first  to  speak;  he  in- 
quired, "  where  shall  we  pray."  As 


HISTORY  OF  TEE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


121 


soon  as  the  chiefs  joined  in  devotion, 
the  wailing  ceased.  Boki,  after  writing 
to  his  brother,  at  Oahu,  to  apprise  him 
of  his  arrival,  spoke  of  the  voyage  and 
of  the  kindness  he  had  received  from 
the  English  nation.  He  repeated  to  the 
people  King  George's  words,  "if  you 
wish  to  have  me  for  your  friend,  you 
and  your  people  must  all  learn  to  read 
and  write.  If  you  do  not  attend  to  in- 
struction, I  shall  not  be  your  friend." 
He  also  told  them  that  when  he  inquired 
of  him,  "  whether  it  was  wise  to  en- 
courage the  teachers  of  religion,"  he  re- 
plied, "  yes,  they  are  a  people  to  make 
others  good.  I  always  have  some  of 
them  by  me ;  "  and  spoke  of  the  former 
barbarous  state  of  Britain,  referring  to 
its  present  condition,  as  an  instance  of 
what  Christianity  and  civilization  could 
accomplish.* 

The  Blonde  arrived  at  Honolulu  on 
the  6th  and  fired  a  salute  which  was 
promptly  returned.  Boki  and  his  party 
were  received  at  the  landing  by  all  the 
chiefs,  dressed  in  deep  mourning.  Files 
of  soldiers  kept  the  crowd  at  a  respect- 
ful distance.  Kaahumanu  led  the  way 
to  the  barges,  accompanied  by  her  two 
sisters  and  the  widows  of  the  deceased 
monarch.  When  the  parties  were  suf- 
ficiently near  to  recognize  each  other, 
the  queens  gave  expression  to  their  sor- 
row and  wept  aloud.  Boki's  barge  stop- 
ped when  within  a  little  distance  of  the 
shore;  all  the  near  relatives  indulged 
in  violent  paroxysms  of  grief,  wringing 
their  hands,  while  the  air  was  filled  by 
the  clamorous  lamentations  of  the  popu- 
lace and  the  gloomy  roar  of  the  minute 
guns.  The  mourners  disembarked  and 
embraced.  After  a  short  interview, 
they  hastened  to  the  house  of  Kalaimo- 
ku,  who  was  too  unwell  to  be  out ; 
thence  to  the  chapel,  where  divine  ser- 
vices were  held ;  after  which,  Boki  made 
an  address,  recommending  attention  to 
"  letters  and  religion." 

On  the  succeeding  day,  the  chiefs 
gave  an  audience  to  Lord  Byron  and  his 
officers,  at  which  the  gifts  of  George 
IV.  to  the  heads  of  the  nation,  were  pre- 
sented. The  young  king  was  clothed  to 
his  great  satisfaction,  in  a  rich  suit  of 
Windsor  uniform,  with  chapeau  and 


*  Vol.  22,  Missionary  Herald,  1826. 

16 


sword.  Kaahumanu  and  Kalaimoku 
also  received  testimonials  suitable  to 
their  station. 

The  funeral  obsequies  were  perform- 
ed on  the  llth,  with  a  mixture  of  bar- 
baric pomp  and  civilized  customs,  which 
accorded  well  with  the  transition  state 
of  the  nation.  Twenty  men  in  the  na- 
tive mourning  habit,  some  with  rich 
feathered  cloaks,  bearing,  by  couples,  the 
immense  feathered  staffs  of  state,  wav- 
ing heavily  to  and  fro  in  the  wind, 
headed  the  procession.  Double  lines  of 
soldiers  extended  on  both  sides  of  the 
road  from  the  fort  to  the  chapel,  a  dis- 
tance of  half  a  mile.  The  marines, 
band  and  officers  of  the  Blonde,  with  all 
the  foreigners,  walked  in  regular  files. 
The  coffins  were  placed  on  two  cars, 
surmounted  by  rich  canopies  of  black, 
and  each  drawn  by  forty  of  the  inferior 
chiefs,  clad  in  mourning.  The  king  and 
his  sister,  with  Lord  Byron  and  Mr. 
Charlton  came  immediately  after;  the 
chiefs  two  by  two,  according  to  their  re- 
spective ranks ;  a  hundred  seamen  of 
the  frigate  in  uniform,  closed  the  pro- 
cession. The  church  was  hung  in  black. 
After  the  religious  services,  the  proces- 
sion marched  to  the  residence  of  Ka- 
laimoku, which  had  been  prepared  for 
the  reception  of  the  officers.  Here  this 
venerable  chieftain,  the  tears  starting 
down  his  care-worn  countenance,  despite 
the  convulsive  effort  of  manliness  to  sup- 
press them,  received  the  remains  of  those 
who,  through  life,  had  been  to  him  as 
his  own  offspring.  Strange  reflections 
thickened  upon  his  memory.  He  had 
fought  against  their  father,  to  his  hu- 
manity owed  his  own  life.  In  war  he 
had  shared  his  perils,  and  in  council  and 
at  the  domestic  board  his  confidence 
and  love.  It  was  amid  the  obscene 
memorials  and  unholy  rites  of  a  now  ob- 
solete faith  that  he  had  closed  the  eyes 
of  the  old  king.  The  throne  had  come 
to  the  son  in  the  conflict  between  the 
votaries  of  heathenism  and  the  advocates 
of  license  rather  than  reform.  Kalai- 
moku looked  in  vain  in  that  crowd  for  his 
old  companions  in  arms,  Kamehameha's 
veteran  counselors.  They  had  died  as 
their  master,  heathens.  He  alone  con- 
nected the  past  with  the  present.  That 
new  and  holy  faith  which,  like  the  grain 


122 


0V  TUE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS, 


of  mustard  seed,  in  noiseiess  increase, 
had  swelled  and  flourished  in  his  own 
heart,  appeared  too  late  for  them  to 
share  its  blessings ;  and  now  amid  the 
passing  away  of  the  old,  the  pomp  and 
decorum  of  civilization,  and  the  sacred 
symbols  of  Christianity,  he  beheld  the 
ashes  of  the  children  of  his  benefactor 
consigned  to  their  last  resting-place,  en- 
veloped in  more  splendid  cerements,  than 
within  his  memory,  the  wealth  of  the 
kingdom  could  have  furnished. 

On  the  6th  of  June,  the  grand  council 
assembled  for  settling  the  succession, 
and  regulating  other  governmental  af- 
fairs. Beside  the  chiefs,  Lord  Byron,  the 
English  Consul  and  Mr.  Bingham  were 
present.  Naihe  opened  the  business, 
by  stating  they  had  met  to  confirm  the 
crown  to  Kauikeouli,  and  establish  suit- 
able laws  for  the  state.  The  young 
prince  was  unanimously  proclaimed  king. 
Kalaimoku  then  addressed  the  chiefs, 
setting  forth  the  defects  of  many  of  their 
laws  and  customs,  particularly  the  re- 
version of  lands  to  the  king  on  the  death 
of  their  occupants.  Kamehameha  had 
partially  introduced  a  hereditary  succes- 
sion, based  upon  feudel  tenure,  which 
confirmed  predial  servitude  among  the 
common  orders.  A  powerful  aristocracy 
had  arisen  in  consequence,  which  his 
superiority  alone  could  keep  in  due  sub- 
jection. His  successor,  either  fearing 
their  overgrown  power,  or  avaricious  of 
their  wealth,  revived  the  more  ancient 
custom.  Kalaimoku  proposed  that  Ka- 
mehameha's  policy  should  become  the 
established  law  of  the  kingdom,  and  that 
the  lands  of  the  chiefs  should  be  un- 
alienable  in  their  families,  except  in 
cases  of  treason.  A  proposal  so  greatly 
to  their  advantage,  was  adopted  by  ac- 
clamation, and  the  result  has  been  to 
leave  very  little  landed  property  in  the 
actual  possession  of  the  king  and  people. 

Boki  informed  the  chiefs  of  the  re- 
sults of  his  interview  with  George  IV. 
in  which  he  had  consented  to  watch  over 
the  kingdom,  and  protect  it  from  foreign 
invasion.  He  also  repeated  the  advice 
in  regard  to  the  missionaries ;  paid  a 
just  tribute  to  the  English  for  their  hos- 
pitality, and  concluded  by  expressing  his 
deep  loyalty  to  the  young  king. 

Kuakini    proposed    that     Kauikeouli 


should  receive  a  Christian  education, 
and  be  separated  as  much  as  possible 
from  those  of  his  subjects,  whose  influ- 
ence would  lead  him  to  the  vices  which 
had  stained  the  character  of  his  brother. 
This  met  with  the  approbation  of  all. 

Kapiolani  then  stated  her  endeavors 
on  Hawaii  to  diminish  the  prominent 
vices  of  the  nation,  and  that  she  had 
promulgated  laws  prohibiting  murder, 
infanticide,  theft  and  debauchery.  Ka- 
ahumanu,  in  a  short  speech,  expressed 
her  approval  of  such  measures,  proposed 
their  universal  adoption,  and  that  in- 
struction should  be  given  to  the  people 
at  large. 

Lord  Byron  gave  some  useful  hints 
for  their  domestic  polity,  in  which  he 
urged  a  uniform  taxation,  the  abolition 
of  villanage,  and  protection  of  life  to  the 
common  people.  He  also  approved  of 
the  labors  and  designs  of  the  mission ; 
its  principles  being  primarily  explained 
in  an  address  by  Mr.  Bingham,  who 
stated  that  their  instructions  expressly 
forbade  any  interference  in  the  political 
concerns  of  the  nation.  The  recogni- 
tion of  their  existence  by  the  EngMsh 
government,  as  a  free  and  independent 
people,  was  lully  assured  them,  and  that 
in  no  wise  would  that  power  dictate  or 
interfere  in  their  domestic  affairs.  By 
his  recommendation  the  exorbitant  port 
duties  were  much  reduced,  and  regula- 
tions for  the  seizure  and  delivery  of  de- 
serters from  ships  agreed  upon.  These 
were  reduced  to  writing,  signed,  sealed 
and  promulgated  by  Kalaimoku.  It  was 
the  first  official  written  document  of 
their  legislation.  Kaahumanu  was  con- 
tinued in  the  regency  during  the  minor- 
ity of  the  king,  with  Kalaimoku  as  her 
prime  minister.  The  council  then  broke 
up.  To  show  gratitude  to  the  English 
government  for  the  attention  received  in 
England,  Boki  proposed  that  sites  for 
the  English  consulate  and  consular  resi- 
dence should  be  bestowed  upon  the  con- 
sul, for  himself  and  successors  in  office. 
With  the  approbation  of  Kaahumanu, 
this  was  done  by  verbal  grant,  and 
Charl ton  received  the  spot  of  land  since 
known  as  Beretane,  as  his  residence, 
and  a  smaller  lot  near  the  fort  for  his 
office.  These  spontaneous  gifts  to  the 
English  nation  \vere  afterwards  made 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


123 


by  Charlton  a  most  fruitful  source  of 
vexation  and  injustice  to  the  chiefs. 

The  Blonde  sailed  for  Hawaii,  having 
Kaahumanu  and  suite  on  board.  Grate- 
ful for  the  attentions  and  kindness  of 
Lord  Byron,  the  chiefs  vied  in  their 
semi-barbaric  hospitality  .to  do  honor  to 
the  guest  of  the  nation.  At  Kealake- 
kua,  Lord  Byron  erected  a  humble  mon- 
ument to  the  memory  of  Cook,  on  the 
spot  where  his  body  was  burnt.  It  con- 
sisted of  an  oaken  cross,  into  which  a 
copper  plate  was  inserted,  bearing  an 
inscription,  ascribing  to  Captain  James 
Cook,  the  discovery  of  these  islands. 
Byron  shares  with  Vancouver,  the  af- 
fectionate remembrance  of  the  chiefs. 

The  immediate  region  about  the  cra- 
ter of  Kilauea,  Hawaii,  being  remote 
from  all  the  mission  stations,  remained 
for  several  years  much  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  priesthood  of  Pele.  It  was 
seldom  visited  by  the  ruling  chiefs,  and 
its  inhabitants  living  within  the  circuit 
of  the  former  devastations  of  the  volcano, 
and  in  sight  of  its  terrific  action,  were 
more  deeply  imbued  with  heathen  su- 
perstitions, than  those  whose  idols  had 
been  destroyed,  and  whose  faith  had 
been  yearly  weakened  by  an  increased 
foreign  intercourse.  Here,  apart  from 
their  fellows,  they  existed  an  almost 
distinct  race.  Sacrifices  were  daily  of- 
fered to  Pele,  and  occasionally  her  proph- 
ets wandered  into  the  more  civilized 
districts,  denouncing  awful  retribution 
for  the  general  apostacy.  But  these  de- 
nunciations had  been  too  frequent  and 
faithless  to  excite  anything  but  ridicule 
among  the  better  informed,  while  the 
chiefs  remonstrated  with  these  self-de- 
luded agents  on  their  folly,  or  sternly 
ordered  them  to  renounce  their  claims 
to  inspiration.  Gradually  a  spirit  of  in- 
quiry was  awakened  even  here.  The 
first  blow  given  to  this  dominant  belief 
was  in  the  summer  of  1823,  when  a 
party  of  missionaries  visited  the  crater. 
In  defiance  of  the  threats  of  the  priests 
and  the  fears  of  the  people,  they  partook 
of  the  sacred  fruit,  and  boldly  invaded 
her  very  fires.  The  impunity  with  which 
this  was  done,  astonished  the  natives ; 
but  they  attributed  it  to  the  superiority 
of  Jehovah  to  their  goddess,  rather  than 
to  an  entire  absence  of  the  supernatural. 


But  early  in  the  year  1S25,  their  credul- 
ity was  staggered  by  the  boldness  of  Ka- 
piolani,  who,  with  a  daring  which,  when 
her  previous  associations  are  considered, 
does  her  infinite  credit,  determined  to 
convince  its  votaries  of  the  falsity  of 
their  oracles.  She  visited  the  wonderful 
phenomenon ;  reproved  the  idolatry  of 
its  worshippers,  and  neglected  every  rite 
and  observance  which  they  had  been 
taught  to  consider  as  necessary  for  their 
welfare.  In  vain  the  priests  launched 
their  anathemas,  and  denounced  upon 
her  the  vengeance  of  the  offended  deity. 
She  replied  she  feared  them  not ;  the 
fires  of  the  volcano  were  the  work  of  the 
God  she  worshiped;  she  would  abide 
the  test  of  daring  Pele  in  the  recesses  of 
her  domains.  Venturing  to  the  brink  of 
the  abyss,  she  descended  several  hun- 
dred feet  toward  the  liquid  lava,  and 
after  casting  the  sacred  berries  into  the 
flames,  an  act  than  which  none  more 
sacrilegious,  according  to  their  ideas, 
could  have  been  done,  she  composedly 
praised  Jehovah  amid  one  of  the  most 
sublime  and  terrible  of  his  works.  The 
sincerity  of  her  faith  could  not  have  been 
put  to  a  severer  test. 

The  island  of  Hawaii  affords  speci- 
mens of  at  once  the  grandest,  most  pic- 
turesque, and  sternest  of  nature's  works. 
Raised  from  the  sea,  by  volcanic  action, 
at  a  date  never  to  be  ascertained  by  man, 
it  has  accumulated  layer  upon  layer  of 
lava  rock,  piled  in  every  shape  that  so 
fearful  and  powerful  an  agency  can  give 
them,  until  it  has  shot  up  mountains 
more  than  two  and  a  half  miles  high. 
Mauna  Kea  on  the  north,  and  Mauna 
Loa  on  the  south,  with  the  lesser  moun- 
tain, Hualalai,  to  the  west,  divide  the 
island  between  them.  Mauna  Kea  rises 
to  an  elevation  of  13,950  feet.  Mauna 
Loa  13,760  feet.  Both  are  vast  in  their 
proportions,  though  differing  widely  in 
their  natural  features.  Mauna  Kea  is  a 
succession  of  craters  long  extinct,  which 
have  risen  one  above  another,  heaping 
up  stones,  ashes,  sand  and  cinders,  long 
enough  quiescent  to  form  soil  and  clothe 
its  flanks  with  vegetation.  To  all  ap- 
pearance it  has  had  a  much  longer  respite 
from  internal  fires  than  its  neighbor. 
But,  judging  from  the  late  eruptions,  all 
of  Hawaii  must  be  a  mere  crust  raised 


124 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


upon  a  vast  globe  of  fire.  Mauna  Loa 
forms  an  immense  dome  with  a  base  of 
120  miles,  and  a  horizon  at  the  top  of  27, 
covered  with  a  gigantic  crater  through 
nearly  its  entire  extent.  Nothing  can 
exceed  the  cold  sterility  of  this  region, 
or  the  fury  of  the  blasts  that  sweep  over 
it.  At  long  intervals  its  gigantic  crater 
heaves  with  internal  fires,  throwing  its 
boiling  lava  over  its  crest,  and  bursting 
vents  for  it  lower  down  its  sides,  from 
which  it  spreads  in  fiery  currents  to  the 
plains  beneath,  consuming  before  it  every 
living  thing.  On  the  eastern  flank  of| 
this  mountain,  some  10,000  feet  down, 
at  an  elevation  of  3,970  feet  above  the 
sea,  is  situated  that  vast  pit  six  miles  in 
circumference,  and  from  400  to  1,000 
feet  deep,  according  to  the  activity  of  its 
fires,  called  Kilauea,  the  fabled  residence 
of  the  goddess  Pele.  No  region  on  the 
globe  affords  greater  attraction  to  the 
lover  of  volcanic  phenomena  than  this. 
Stupendous  in  their  scale,  always  active, 
though  varying  greatly  in  intensity,  they 
never  fail  to  impress  the  traveler  wTith 
wonder,  interest  and  fear.  Vesuvius  sinks 
into  insignificance  in  comparison.  The 
visitor  must  not,  however,  expect  to  find 
a  huge  pit.  two  miles  in  diameter,  filled 
to  overflowing  with  fluid  lava,  as  the 
imagination  readily  suggests  at  the  idea 
of  a  crater.  Kilauea  more  frequently 
presents  the  appearance  of  a  smoking 
ruin,  sunken  deep  into  mother  earth, 
flashing  with  light  and  flame,  heavy  with 
smoke,  and  stunning  with  detonations 
and  angry  noises.  Occasionally  the  black 
crust  or  mass  beneath  heaves  and  is  rent 
asunder;  rivers  of  viscid,  boiling  lava 
arise,  spouting  blood-red  jets  far  into  the 
air ;  or  they  spread  into  a  lake  which 
sends  its  heavy  waves  against  its  sides 
with  the  noise  and  fury  of  the  surf  on  a 
precipice  bound  shore. 

To  the  eastward,  Kilauea,  by  the  lat- 
eral pressure  of  its  lava,  has  thrown  out 
a  series  of  smaller  mouths  or  craters, 
reaching  to  the  sea-side,  from  which  it 
ejects  its  superfluous  masses,  before  ac- 
cumulating sufficiently  to  overflow  its 
owu  banks.  These  operate  as  safety 
valves,  and  preserve  the  country  in  the 
immediate  vicinity,  which  is  fertile  and 
forest-clad,  from  devastation. 

The  greater  portion  of  Hawaii  has  re- 


mained to  this  day  comparatively 
and  benighted.    It  has  afforded  a  re 


dark 
retreat 

to  the  few  remaining  votaries  of  the  past, 
and  has  been  the  field  whence  have 
sprung  wild  beliefs,  which,  under  more 
favorable  circumstances,  might  have  ri- 
pended  into  fanatical  creeds.  The  char- 
acter of  the  inhabitants  seems  to  partake 
of  the  natural  wildness  about  them,  and 
their  imaginations  to  be  ripened  amid 
the  blackness  of  desolation  which  marks 
the  action  of  the  volcano.  Here  arose  a 
system  of  theology,  some  years  since, 
remarkable  for  its  ingenious  combination 
of  Christianity  and  heathenism.  A  few 
young  men  promulgated  that  there  were 
three  gods :  Jehovah,  Jesus  Christ,  and 
Hapu,  a  former  prophetess,  whose  bones 
had  been  disinterred,  adorned  after  the 
manner  of  their  idols,  and  deposited  in  a 
certain  enclosure,  denominated  the  place 
of  refuge.  They  traveled  through  the 
island,  exhorting  all  to  flee  within  its 
bounds,  as  the  heavens  and  the  earth 
were  about  to  meet,  and  all  not  there 
assembled  would  be  destroyed.  Multi- 
tudes obeyed ;  a  temple  was  erected  and 
they  continued  worshipping  day  and 
night ;  but  the  destruction  not  taking 
place  at  the  appointed  time,  hunger  com- 
pelled many  to  leave.  The  appearance 
of  a  missionary,  who  expostulated  with 
them  upon  their  folly,  decided  the  re- 
mainder, and,  after  firing  the  temple, 
they  quietly  dispersed. 

No  restriction  excited  the  anger  of  the 
enemies  of  the  mission  more  than  the 
taboo,  which  prevented  women  from  fre- 
quenting ships.  Since  the  discovery  of 
the  islands,  this  practice  had  been  car- 
ried on  openly  and  without  restraint. 
Masters  of  vessels  frequently  hired  young 
girls  to  perform  voyages  with  them.  So 
universal  had  been  licentiousness,  that 
the  first  appearance  of  any  restraint  ap- 
peared to  be  viewed  by  its  advocates  as 
an  infraction  of  their  natural  rights.  It 
is  on  record  that  vicious  whites,  previous 
to  the  arrival  of  the  missionaries,  incul- 
cated licentiousness  as  a  virtue,  by  tell- 
ing the  natives  that  it  was  right  for  them 
to  prostitute  their  women.  This  species 
of  hospitality  was  freely  proffered  the 
missionaries,  and  the  natives  were  at 
first  greatly  surprised  at  their  refusal, 
and  the  doctrines  of  purity  they  preach- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


125 


ed,  quoting  against  them  the  opposite 
sayings  of  their  first  teachers.  In  the  fall 
of  1825,  the  chiefs  were  induced  to  for- 
bid the  traffic  in  lewdness  The  good 
sense  of  the  majority  of  foreigners  ap- 
proved of  the  reform,  but  the  violence  of 
others  was  unpardonable. 

In  October,  the  British  whaler  Daniel, 
Baptain  Buckle,  arrived  at  Lahaina, 
where  this  law  was  in  force.  Some  of 
the  crew  charged  Mr.  Richards  with  be- 
ing its  author,  and  demanded  that  he 
should  procure  its  repeal.  He  informed 
them  that  the  law  emanated  from  the 
chiefs,  who  acted  in  this  respect  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  word  of  God.  They 
withdrew ;  others  came  up  and  threaten- 
ed the  destruction  of  his  property  and 
lives  of  his  family.  After  they  retired, 
the  natives  kept  guard,  and  allowed  no 
seamen  to  approach  the  premises.  The 
next  day  Captain  Buckle  sent  word  to 
Mr.  Richards,  that  all  his  crew  were 
ashore,  and  were  determined  not  to  re- 
turn without  women ;  and  if  he  gave  his 
consent,  all  would  be  "  peace  and  quiet- 
ness." An  attack  was  made  by  the  arm- 
ed crew  upon  the  house,  which  was  re- 
pulsed by  the  guard.  The  chiefs  were 
vainly  solicited  by  the  infuriated  seamen 
to  repeal  the  law. 

On  the  14th  of  January,  1S26,  the  II. 
S.  schooner  Dolphin,  Lieut.  John  Perci- 
val,  arrival  at  Honolulu.  This  command- 
er expressed  his  regret  at  the  existence 
of  such  a  statute,  and  interested  himself, 
and  with  partial  success,  in  procuring 
the  release  of  some  women  who  were 
confined  for  immoral  offences.  Violent 
menaces  were  circulated  against  the  mis- 
sionaries, to  whose  influence  the  regula- 
tion was  rightfully  attributed.  The  even- 
ing of  the  26th  of  February,  being  the 
Sabbath,  Mr.  Bingham  went  to  hold  di- 
vine worship  at  the  house  of  Kalaimoku, 
who  was  lying  ill  on  his  couch.  Sever- 
al of  the  Dolphin's  crew  entered,  armed 
with  clubs,  and  demanded  the  abolition 
of  the  law;  in  case  of  refusal,  they 
threatened  to  destroy  the  building.  Be- 
fore they  could  be  ejected,  all  the  front 
windows  were  broken  in.  Driven  from 
this  quarter,  and  having  received  a  rein- 
forcement of  shipmates,  they  directed 
their  course  to  the  residence  of  Mr.  Bing- 
ham.. Seeing  this,  he  endeavored  to 


reach  the  house  first,  but  falling  in  with 
them,  was  immediately  seized,  and 
threatened  with  further  violence.  The 
natives  now  interfered,  and  in  the  melee 
Mr.  Bingham  was  released,  fortunately 
escaping  a  blow  aimed  with  a  club,  and 
the  stab  of  a  knife.  These  rioters  were 
secured,  but  another  gang  reached  the 
house  and  broke  in  a  window.  Two  at- 
tempted to  force  the  door,  when  one  un- 
expectedly turned  upon  the  other,  and 
without  any  apparent  provocation,  with 
a  sudden  blow,  laid  him  senseless.  An- 
other was  dangerously  wounded  by  a 
sabre,  in  the  hands  of  a  native. 
Through  the  authority  of  the  chiefs  who 
were  present,  no  further  injury  was  re- 
ceived, although  one  seamen  owed  his 
preservation  to  the  interposition  of  a 
missionary.* 

In  the  evening,  Percival  waited  upon 
the  chiefs,  and  declared  his  intention  not 
to  leave  the  island  until  the  prohibition 
was  repealed.  Awed  by  threats,  and 
wearied  by  importunity,  some  of  them 
gave  a  tacit  consent.  Numbers  of  women 
immediately  went  on  board,  and  when 
the  first  boat  load  pushed  off,  a  shout  of 
triumph  rang  through  the  shipping.  The 
delinquent  chiefs  were  severely  repri- 
manded by  Kalaimoku ;  but  the  prestige 
of  the  taboo  had  been  overborne  by  a  na- 
tional vessel  of  a  powerful  nation,  and  it 
was  not  until  there  was  more  moral  sen- 
timent to  sustain  it  that  it  could  be  rees- 
tablished. Lieut.  Percival  expressed  his 
gratification  at  the  result,  and  his  further 
determination  to  compel  the  recision  of 
the  edict  at  the  windward  islands,  where 
it  still  continued  in  force.  His  vessel 
remained  at  Honolulu  ten  weeks,  in  the 
full  enjoyment  of  the  immorality  for 
which  he  had  so  successfully  interfered. 
So  odious  was  the  example  that  his  ves- 
sel has  ever  since  borne  the  soubriquet  of 
the  "mischief-making  man-of-war." 

With  such  a  precedent,  it  is  no  matter 
of  surprise  that  lawless  captains  should 
incite  their  crews  to  equally  overt  acts. 
At  Lahaina,  some  mouths  after,  where 
through  the  firmness  of  Hoapili,  the  law 
was  rigidly  enforced,  the  seamen  of  sev- 
eral ships  lying  in  the  roads,  declared 
their  determination  to  murder  Mr.  Rich- 
ards. He  was  then  absent;  but  they 


*Tracy's  History  of  Missions,  p.  184.    Boston,  1842. 


126 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


proceeded  to  his  house  with  the  inten-  (zealously  endeavored  to  implant  in  their 
tion  of  demolishing  it.  A  guard  of  na-  j  legislation  the  direct  influences  derived 
tives  drove  them  off;  they  continued  for  I  from  the  simple  commandments  of  the 


several  days,  to  destroy  the  property  of 
the  inhabitants,  and  committed  many 
excesses.  Hoapili  was  also  absent,  and 
had  left  the  place  in  charge  of  a  female 
chief,  who,  at  the  commencement  of  the 
difficulties,  ordered  all  the  females  to  re- 
tire to  the  mountains. 

A  year  afterward,  another  and  more 
aggravated  assault  was  made  by  the  crew 
of  the  John  Palmer,  an  English  whaler, 
commanded  by  an  American,  of  the  name 
of  Clark.  Several  women  had  succeed- 
ed in  getting  on  board,  whom  the  cap- 
tain declined  giving  up.  Hoapili  refus- 
ed to  allow  Clark,  who  happened  to  be 
ashore,  to  return  to  his  vessel  until  the 
delinquents  were  landed.  Word  was 


Gospel.  So  far  as  the  missionaries  were 
faithful  to  their  cause,  they  became  iden- 
tified with  government  j  for  it  was  only 
to  them,  and  the  transient  visitors  of  in- 
telligence at  the  islands,  that  the  chiefs 
could  safely  apply  for  disinterested  ad- 
vice. This  was  frequently  given,  but 
in  its  execution  the  old  Kamehameha 
policy  was  adhered  to.  And  in  the  then 
existing  state  of  the  nation,  when  every- 
thing was  in  a  state  of  transition,  noth- 
ing short  of  absolute  authority  could 
effectually  keep  in  check  the  efforts  at 
misrule.  The  external  sentiment  of  the 
nation  fell  in  with  the  power  and  patron- 
age of  the  chiefs;  and  while  their  power 
remained  unshaken,  their  decrees  were 


carried  to  the  crew  of  the  detention  of  j  observed  with  a  rigidness  which  annoyed 
their  captain,  and  they  prepared  to  fire  those  whose  interests  and  pleasures  lay 
upon  the  town.  Upon  the  promise  of  more  in  unrestricted  freedom.  It  must 
Clark  to  return  the  females,  he  was  re-  not  be  supposed  that  the  outward  corn- 
leased;  before,  however,  the  intelligence  pliance  with  the  new  laws,  so  generally 
of  his  liberation  reached  the  crew,  they  j  prevalent,  was  a  safe  criterion  of  the 
had  discharged  five  cannon  balls  in  the  i  moral  condition  of  the  nation.  As  under 
direction  of  the  mission-house,  none  of 


which,  though  they  passed  near  it,  proved 
destructive.  The  next  morning  Clark, 
violating  his  pledge,  sailed  for  Oahu, 
taking  the  women  with  him. 

Outrages  from  similar  causes,  of  more 
or  less  virulence,  were  not  uncommon 
at  this  period.  The  forbearance  of  the 


their  old  taboos,  fear  of  the  chiefs  was 
the  main  cause  of  a  compliance  with 
regulations  foreign  to  the  dispositions  of 
the  masses  ;  but  it  must  be  acknowledg- 
ed that  at  this  time  a  moral  discrimina- 
tion had  arisen,  favorable  to  the  cause  of 
virtue.  The  consistent  piety  of  the 
chiefs,  put  to  the  blush  the  conduct  of 


islanders,  and  the  inflexible  courage  of  j  civilized  men,  who  had  formerly  shared 
the  missionaries,  contrast  forcibly  with  in  their  revels,  and  consequently  ac- 
the  malignity  of  disappointed  sensualism,  j  quired  an  influence  in  their  councils, 
Thomas  Ap  Catesby  Jones,  Esq.,  com-  j  which  had  been  supplanted  by  the  mia- 
manding  the  D.  S.  ship  Peacock, arrived  sion.  Hence  arose  an  enmity,  which 


at  Honolulu  in  October,  1826,  and  re- 
mained three  months.  During  this  time 
transpired  an  event,  to  understand  the 
occasion  of  which,  it  will  be  necessary  to 
trace  its  cause.  Two  parties  then  exist- 
ed ;  one  composed  of  the  powerful  chiefs 
who  were  under  the  religious  influence 
of  the  mission  ;  their  polity  bore  deeply 
the  impress  of  their  new  ideas  ;  and  the 
whole  force  of  government  was  employ- 
ed to  crush  the  licentious  spirit  of  the 
nation,  and  compel  the  people  to  receive 
instruction.  To  their  teachers  they  look- 
ed with  strong  affection  ;  although  the 
principles  of  the  latter  forbade  any  direct 
political  assumption,  yet  their  pupils 


gradually  settled  into  a  systematic  hos- 
tility to  every  act  of  government :  all  its 
acts  of  a  moral  tendency  were  ascribed 
to  the  mission,  and  the  party  thus  form- 
ed, vigorously  assaulted  the  motives  of 
its  supporters,  and  endeavored,  by  se- 
cretly undermining  the  good  effected, 
corrupting  the  converts,  or  by  availing 
themselves  of  the  mass  of  vileness, 
which,  like  a  spent  volcano,  lay  conceal- 
ed in  the  nation,  and  needed  but  an 
opening  to  cause  it  to  rage  strongly  and 
fiercely,  utterly  to  destroy  the  mission- 
aries from  the  land.  Foiled  in  their 
endeavors,  they  had  ventured  to  assail 
their  personal  characters,  and  circulated 


HISTORY   OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


127 


cunningly  devised  falsehoods  and  the 
basest  calumnies,  some  of  which  poison- 
ed the  minds  of  worthy  men,  who  thought 
they  saw  objectionable  features  in  mis- 
sion operations  generally,  and  eagerly 
caught  at  what,  coming  from  the  same 
field,  was  supposed,  with  all  their  exag- 
gerations, to  originate  in  truth.  By  such 
causes  were  the  intelligent  minds  of  men 
like  Kotzebue,  Beechey,  and  others  cir- 
cumvented ;  men  whose  fault  lay  in  not 
examining  candidly  for  themselves,  but 
giving  a  too  willing  and  credulous  ear  to 
specious  charges.  Supported  by  them, 
some  of  the  popular  reviewers  and  writers 
fell  into  most  egregious  errors,  which 
have  since  been  amply  refuted. 

Farther  to  give  evidence  to  their  state- 
ments, a  letter  was  published  in  the  Lon- 
don Quarterly  Review,  which  the  editor 
pledged  to  be  a  genuine  production  of 
Boki,  in  which  they  were  confirmed,  and 
the  thrice  told  tale  of  the  power  passing 
into  the  hands  of  the  missionaries,  fully 
re-echoed.*  Unfortunately  for  the  party, 
it  no  sooner  appeared  than  it  was  proved 
a  forgery,  and  by  it  the  real  character  of 
those  who  resorted  to  such  fabrications 
to  support  a  sinking  cause,  was  disclosed. 
If  the  opponents  of  the  mission  had  taken 
the  stand  that  the  influence  of  govern- 
mental matters  was  gradually  passing 
into  their  hands,  and  the  policy  of  the 
nation  was  perceptibly  assuming  their 
hue,  they  might  have  been  sustained  by 
facts.  But  they  undertook  to  prove  too 
much  when  they  accused  the  missiona- 
ries of  aiming  to  build  up  an  ecclesiasti- 
cal polity,  centering  all  power  and  wealth 
in  themselves,  after  the  manner  of  the 
Jesuits  of  Paraguay.  The  weapons  they 
employed  against  them  were  foul  in  them- 
selves. Consequently  the  evil  they  in- 
tended recoiled  on  their  own  heads,  and 
rendered  their  testimony  even  upon  other 
matters  dubious. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  all  who 
were  not  of  the  mission  were  in  the  ranks 
of  their  enemies.  There  were  many  men 
who  honestly  differed  from  them,  but  re- 
spected their  cause,  and  who  could  see 
errors  in  practice  or  persons  without  pass- 
ing wholesale  condemnation  upon  a  creed 
or  sect.  The  venerable  John  Young  ex- 

*  Appendix  to  Stewart's  Residence  in  the  Sandwich 

Islands. — see  letter  6. 


pressed  his  surprise  and  pleasure  at  the 
reform ;  foreign  settlers  there  were  who 
lent  aid  by  counsel  and  example.  But 
those  low  men,  who  formerly  held  un- 
limited influence  over  the  chiefs,  of  whom 
Kives  was  the  principal,  formed  the  nu- 
cleus of  the  party.  About  them  gathered 
the  degraded  in  moral  sentiment  of  all 
classes;  men  whose  interests  or  sensual- 
ity were  curtailed  by  the  increasing 
knowledge.  At  their  head  now  appeared 
the  English  and  American  consuls.  In 
the  selection  of  the  former  individual,  the 
government,  for  its  own  credit,  had  been 
most  unfortunate.  So  popular  had  Van- 
couver and  Lord  Byron  made  that  na- 
tion, that  an  official  agent  of  generous 
sentiments  and  general  intelligence, 
might  have  secured  an  influence  which 
would  have  hastened  the  progress  of  civ- 
ilization, and  conferred  honor  upon  him- 
self. But  this  man  unfortunately  was, 
by  temperament,  habits  and  abilities,  in- 
adequate to  such  usefulness.  His  char- 
acter for  mendacity  soon  became  prover- 
bial throughout  the  nation,  and  he  was 
considered  a  reproach  to  his  own  coun- 
trymen by  those  who  had  an  opportunity 
of  knowing  him.*  He  was  often  kind 
and  courteous  to  the  American  mission- 
aries, but  was  jealous  of  their  superior 
influence,  and  feared  that  the  tone  of  the 
people  would  tend  towards  that  nation. 
As  American  commerce  and  settlers 
were  by  far  the  most  numerous,  and  both 
yearly  increasing,  English  influence 
would  gradually  be  absorbed,  and  in  time 
the  islands  become  an  appendage  to  the 
great  republic.  This  was  a  sufficient 
motive  for  an  attempt  to  frustrate  their 
growing  prosperity.  Availing  himself  of 
the  discordant  elements  about  him,  he 
managed,  by  exciting  their  cupidity,  sen- 
sualism and  fear  of  religious  intoleration, 
to  combine  into  one  party  the  classes 
before  described.  Several  Americans, 
circumvented  by  his  artifice,  and  imbib- 
ing an  almost  equal  hostility  towards 
their  countrymen,  impolitically  conde- 
scended to  serve  under  his  banner,  under 
the  persuasion  that  they  were  opposing 
liberal  principles  to  fanatical  rule.  On 
a  small  scale  it  was  the  gay  cavalier 
against  the  zealous  round-head.  Which- 
ever party  secured  the  state  proved  as- 


:St-e  Nautical  Magazine,  Yol.  III.,  page  541 :  1834. 


128 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


cendant.  By  turns  Charlton  flattered 
and  bullied  the  chiefs;  and  at  all  times 
endeavored  to  convince  them  that  they 
were  the  subjects  of  the  British  empire, 
and  under  some  sort  of  guardianship  to 
him.  But  the  assurance  of  Lord  Byron, 
and  the  terms  of  his  own  commission,  by 
which  he  received  his  appointment  to  a 
friendly  and  independent  nation,  gave 
the  lie  to  those  assertions.  Failing  in 
defeating  the  progress  of  the  American 
mission,  at  this  period  he  proclaimed  it 
his  intention  to  divide  the  nation  and 
create  a  rival  religion,  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  English  Koman  Catholic  priests. 
Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  at  the  visit 
of  Captain  Jones. 

In  the  management  of  their  foreign  re- 
lations, the  chiefs  depended  greatly  upon 
the  advice  of  the  highest  foreign  officers 
who  touched  at  their  islands.  Either 
party  felt  strengthened  according  to  the 
course  such  pursued.  The  conduct  of 
Percival  was  a  triumph  to  the  liberal 
party,  as  they  considered  themselves ; 
that  of  Jones  strengthened  the  confidence 
of  the  government  in  the  honor  of  his 
nation,  and  served  fully  to  expose  the 
malicious  designs  of  their  defamers.  He 
arrived  imbued  with  many  of  the  preju- 
dices common  at  that  era;  numbers  zeal- 
ously hastened  to  confirm  them.  The 
excitement  became  so  great  that  the  mis- 
sion issued  a  circular,  stating  the  course 
they  had  pursued,  denying  the  charges, 
and  challenging  an  investigation.  The 
residents  accepted  it,  and  appointed  a 
meeting,  at  which  both  parties  could  ap- 
pear and  be  heard.  Captain  Jones  and 
his  officers  were  to  be  witnesses.  At  the 
appointed  time  all  assembled;  Mr.  Charl- 
ton repeated  the  substance  of  the  usual 
complaints;  that  he  was  dissatisfied  with 
the  management  of  the  mission ;  that  the 
people  were  growing  worse ;  that  no  chief 
dared  testify  against  a  missionary,  &c. ; 
but  he  refused  to  commit  any  of  these 
charges  to  writing,  or  render  himself 
liable  for  the  proof.  He  said  he  came  to 
hear  what  the  mission  had  to  prove. 
Their  circular  was  read,  and  the  accusers 
were  requested  to  bring  forward  some 
special  charge  or  testimony  of  evil,  if 
there  were  such.  Not  being  able  to  ad- 
duce any,  the  meeting  was  adjourned. 
Before  his  departure,  Captain  Jones,  hav- 


ing made  himself  acquainted  with  the 
facts  and  statements  of  both  sides,  wrote 
to  the  mission,  bearing  testimony  to  the 
good  results  of  their  labors,  and  their 
readiness  to  submit  to  an  investigation 
of  any  charges  derogatory  to  their  sys- 
tem or  character.* 

On  the  2d  of  March,  1827,  the  nation 
sustained  a  loss  in  the  death  of  their 
venerated  chieftain,  Kalaimoku,  who  died 
at  Kailua,  Hawaii,  of  the  dropsy;  a  com- 
plaint from  which  he  had  long  suffered. 
By  his  countrymen  he  was  significantly 
termed  the  "  iron  cable  "  of  Hawaii.! 
Boki,  whose  influence  and  abilities  were 
no  ways  equal  to  his  brother's,  was  con- 
tinued governor  of  Oahu,  and  was  vested 
by  Kaahumanu  with  the  guardianship  of 
the  young  king,  a  measure  which  she 
soon  had  cause  to  regret.  He  was  of  an 
easy  temperament,  and  frequently  duped 
by  designing  foreigners.  For  a  consid- 
erable period  he  faithfully  discharged  his 
duties,  acting  in  harmony  with  Kaahu- 
manu, but  was  finally  seduced  into  a 
course  which  distracted  the  nation,  and 
brought  ruin  upon  himself.! 


*  Captain  Jones'  account  of  the  result  of  this  meeting  la 
curious  and  interesting.  In  a  letter,  under  date  of  1835 
he  writes :  , 

"  I  own  I  trembled  for  the  cause  of  Christianity  and 
for  the  poor  benighted  islander,  when  I  saw  on  the  one 
hand  the  British  Consul,  backed  by  the  most  wealthy 
and  hitherto  influential  foreign  residents  and  shipmasters, 
in  formidable  array,  and  prepared,  as  1  supposed,  to  tes- 
tify against  some  half  dozen  meek  and  humble  servants 
of  the  Lord,  calmly  seated  on  the  other;  ready  and  even 
anxious  to  be  tried  by  their  bitterest  enemies,  who  on  this 
occasion  occupied  the  quadruple  station  of  judge,  jury, 
ivitness  and  prosecutor.  Thus  situated,  w  hat  could  the 
friends  of  the  mission  hope  for  or  expect  ?  But  what,  in 
reality,  was  the  result  of  this  portentious  meeting,  which, 
was  to  overthrow  the  missionaries  and  uproot  the  seeds 
of  civilization  and  Christianity,  so  extensively  and  pros- 
perously sown  by  them  in  every  direction,  while  in  their 
stead  idolatry  and  heathenism  were  to  ride  triumphantly 
through  all  coming  time  ?  Such  was  the  object  and  such 
were  the  hopes  of  many  of  the  foreign  residents  at  the 
Sandwich  Islands  in  1826.  What,  I  again  ask,  was  the 
issue  of  this  great  trial?  The  most  perfect,  full,  com- 
plete and  triumphant  victory  for  the  missionaries  that 
could  have  been  asked  by  their  most  devoted  friends. 
Not  one  jot  or  tittle,  not  one  iota  derogatory  to  their 
characters  as  men,  as  ministers  of  the  Gospel  of  the 
strictest  order,  or  as  missionaries,  could  be  made  to  ap- 
pear by  the  united  efforts  of  all  who  conspired  against 
them." 

t  At  his  death  his  stone  house,  the  best  built  and  most 
costly  in  the  island,  was  dismantled  in  accordance  with 
a  superstition  that  still  lingered  among  them.  Upon  the 
death  of  a  high  chief,  it  was  not  uncommon  even  at  so 
late  a  period,  to  destroy  much  of  his  property,  that  none 
other  might  possess  it ;  and  valuable  loads  of  satins,  vel- 
vets, broadcloths  and  other  rich  goods  were  taken  to  the 
sea-side,  cut  into  small  pieces,  and  cast  into  the  surf. 

J  An  attempt  has  lately  been  made  by  the  advocates  of 
Romanism— see  anonymous  pamphlet,  published  at  Hon- 
olulu, ISiO,  entitled  "Supplement  to  the  fcandwich  Island 
Mirror"— to  exaggerate  the  authority  of  Boki,  and  de- 
stroy that  of  Kaahumanu,  who  is-  represented  as  an 
usurping  old  woman,  led  by  the  American  mission.  No 


HISTOBY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


129 


When  it  was  found  that  exposure  at- 
tended the  criminal  practices  and  vio- 
lence of  those  captains  who  insulted  the 
native  authorities,  and  heaped  abuse  and 
violence  upon  the  unoffending  heads  of 
their  teachers — for  it  was  at  this  date 
that  the  public  press  was  first  made  use 
of  as  a  check  to  those  whose  lawlessness 
was  meted  only  by  fear  of  public  dis- 
grace— the  virulence  of  the  party  that 
supported  them,  knew  no  bounds.  In 
their  rage,  they  desired  the  deaths  of 
those  who  had  been  active  in  creating 
the  moral  sentiment  which  placed  a  bar 
to  their  intemperate  passions.  Charlton 
blusteringly  demanded  satisfaction  for 
the  detention  of  Clark  at  Lahaina.  Such 
deportment  rendered  the  chiefs  more  at- 
tached, as  they  saw  an  attempt  to  visit 
the  hostility  to  their  acts  upon  the  mis- 
sion. During  the  month  of  December, 
it  was  thought  necessary  to  establish  a 


historical  fact  can  be  more  clear  than  that  the  supreme 
power  devolved  solely  upon  her  after  the  death  of  Kalai- 
moku,  until  the  king  became  of  age.  Previous  to  that,  by 
the  universal  testimony  of  the  king,  chiefs  and  natives, 
Kalaimoku  though  perhaps  more  often  in  contact  with 
the  whites  than  herself,  derived  his  authority  from  her, 
and  was  her  "  Kanaka  " — agent  or  business  man— doing 
nothing  without  consultation  and  her  assent.  Kalaimoku 
has  been  called  regent,  but  he  was  regent  only  in  the 
sense  that  the  premier,  according  to  the  Hawaiian  con- 
stitution, can  be  considered  as  king.  He  acts  with  the 
authority  of  the  king,  for  him.  As  the  favored  wife  of 
Kamehameha,  Kaahumanu  was  second  only  in  power  to 
him  in  his  lifetime.  Before  his  death  she  was  appointed 
guardiiin  of,  or  more  properly  a  constitutional  check  upon 
Liholiho,  whose  father  feared  the  result  of  his  erratic 
habits,  anl  at  his  accession  was  confirmed  by  him  in 
this  office.  On  his  departure,  the  kingdom  was  left 
jointly  to  her  care,  and  th-it  of  Kalaimoku,  as  before  ex- 
plained. This  government  was  again  confirmed  at  the 
national  council  on  the  6th  of  June,  1825.  After  the 
death  of  the  latter,  the  sole  authority  reverted  to  Kaahu- 
manu. both  by  virtue  of  rank  and  previous  appointment. 
It  was  not  till  a  later  period  that  Boki,  instigated  by 
foreigners,  aspired  to  greater  power.  Both  Kaahumanu 
and  Boki  filled  their  respective  offices  without  collision, 
and  with  the  approbation  of  the  other  chiefs.  The  limits 
of  each  were  well  understood.  Kaahumanu  was  the  po- 
litical guardian  of  the  kingdom,  the  executive  power,  re- 
peatedly recognized  by  national  councils  and  edicts,  also 
by  the  officers  and  war-ships  of  foreign  powers. 

Boki  was  governor  of  Oahu,  and  the  personal  guardian 
of  the  king.  Like  that  of  the  princess,  it  was  an  import- 
ant office,  but  not  of  a  political  character.  It  had  been 
previously  filled,  and  was  at  a  later  period,  by  chiefs  of 
equal  rank  with  Boki,  who  never  assumed  other  political 
importance  in  consequence. 

Next  to  the  children  of  Keopuolani,  Kaahumar.u.  by  de- 
scent, was  entitled  to  the  chief  power,  being  the  daughter 
of  her  husband's  most  noted  warrior,  Keeaumoku,  and 
second  only  10  him  in  military  rank.  The  importance  of 
his  family  is  shown  by  the  offices  they  filled  even  in  the 
lifetime  of  Kamehameha  I.  The  daughters  were  his 
queens,  of  which  Kaahumanu  was  chief.  Two  sons, 
Kuakini,  governor  of  Hawaii,  and  Keeaumoku,  governor 
of  Maui,  Lanai  and  Molokai,  afterward  placed  in  an  office 
of  still  greater  responsibility  by  Liholiho,  the  governor- 
ship of  Kauai.  No  other  family  was  of  like  importance, 
though  the  service  and  fidelity  of  Kalaimoku  entitled  him 
to  equal  consideration,  and  it  is  upon  the  rank  that  he 
filled— derived  not  so  much  from  descent  as  from  the 
friendship  and  confidence  of  two  kings — that  the  de- 
famers  of  Kaahumanu  endeavored  to  establish  his  brother. 

17 


military  guard  for  the  protection  of  the 
most  obnoxious.  The  fortifications  at 
Lahaina  were  made  capable  of  resisting 
any  attack  from  whale  ships ;  though  it 
is  improbable  that  the  threats  would 
have  been  put  into  execution.  Foiled 
thus  on  every  side,  their  enmity  settled 
into  a  subtle  malignity,  which  sought 
expression  by  poisoning  the  minds  of 
visitors,  and  creating  prejudices  which 
they  hoped  would  result  in  the  final 
overthrow  of  the  mission,  and  the  chiefs 
that  gave  it  support.  Dibble  quotes  from 
a  journal  kept  by  a  native,  an  account  of 
a  noted  occurrence  at  this  period,  which, 
as  illustrative  of  the  peculiar  relative 
position  of  the  different  parties,  and  the 
policy  of  each,  is  worth  giving  in  this 
connection. 

"The  excitement  became  very  great,  and  some  foreign- 
ers who  had  formerly  been  favorable  to  the  mission,  were 
gained  over  to  take  part  in  it ;  and  certain  unstable  chiefs 
also,  particularly  Boki  and  Manuia,  joined  with  the  op- 
posers,  saying  it  was  wrong  for  Mr.  Richards  to  make 
known  in  America  the  conduct  of  foreigners  which  took 
place  at  these  islands.  Certain  chiefs  of  Oahu  wrote  to 
chiefs  on  Maui,  to  this  effect :  '  Chiefs  of  Maui,  if  Captain 
Buckle  and  Captain  Clark  and  the  English  Consul  de- 
mand your  teacher,  do  you  take  care  of  yourselves  and 
not  refuse  to  give  him  up ;  let  a  foreigner  contest  the 
matter  with  foreigners,  and  intermeddle  not  yourselves 
lest  you  become  guilty.' 

"  This  sentiment  gaining  ground  and  causing  great 
confusion,  Kaahumanu  called  a  council  of  all  the  chiefs, 
to  determine  whether  it  was  right  to  give  up  Mr.  Rich- 
ards to  the  rage  of  the  foreigners,  or  whether  it  was  their 
duty  to  protect  him. 

"  Mr.  Richards  was  to  sail  to  Oahu  on  Wednesday 
evening,  and  on  the  afternoon  he  preached  to  his  people 
at  Lahaina,  from  the  parting  address  of  Paul  to  the  Ephe- 
sian  Church.  The  congregation  were  in  tears,  for  they 
had  heard  the  opinion  of  many  chiefs  not  to  protect  him, 
and  supposed  they  should  never  again  hear  his  voice. 

"  The  chiefs  met,  and  were  in  council  two  days  with- 
out coming  to  a  decision,  for  Boki  and  even  Mr.  Young, 
the  companion  of  the  old  king  Kamehameha,  said  it  was 
wrong  for  Mr.  Richards  to  write  to  America. 

"On  the  third  day,  David  Malo  and  Kanaina  entered 
witbin  one  of  the  doors  of  the  council  room,  and  Kaa- 
humano,  having  much  confidence  in  David  Malo  as  a 
teacher,  beckoned  him  to  sit  down.  She  then  said,  to  him 
with  tears:  '  What  can  we  do  for  our  teacher?  for  even 
Mr.  Young  and  Boki  say  that  he  was  very  guilty  in  writ- 
ing to  America.'  David  said  :  •  The  foreigners  certainly 
are  very  inconsistent,  for  they  say  it  is  very  foolish  to 
pray,  but  very  well  to  learn  to  read  and  write,  and  now 
they  condemn  Mr.  Richards,  not  for  praying,  but  for 
writing  a  letter.  But,'  said  he,  '  let  us  look. at  this  case  •, 
if  some  of  your  most  valuable  properly  should  be  stolen, 
and  you  should  be  grieved  for  the  loss,  cf  it,  and  some  one 
should  give  you  information  of  the  thief,  so  that  you 
could  regain  your  property,  whom  would  you  blame,  the 
informer  or  the  thief?'  'The  thief,  surely,'  said  she. 
David  said  :  'Kanihonui  was  guilty  of  improper  conduct 
wath  one  of  the  wives  of.  Kamehameha,  and  Luluhe  was 
knowing  to  the  fact  and  gave  him  information,  which  of 
the  two  did  Kamehameha  cause  to  be  slain  ? '  She  said, 
'  Kanihonui.'  David  said  :  '  In  what  country  is  it  the 
practice  tO'Condemn  the  man  who  gives  true  information 
of  crimes  c  mmitted,  and  let  the  criminal  go  uncensured 
and  unpunished  ? r  '  No  where,'  said  she.  '  Why  then,* 
replied  David,  'should  we  condemn  Mr.  Richards,  who 
has  sent  home  to  his  country  true  information,  and  justify 
these  foreigners  whose  riotous  conduct  is  known  to  all  of 
us  ? '  Kaahumanu  replied  :  '  The  case  indeed  is  very- 
plain  ;  Mr.  Richards-  is  the  just  one  •,  we  chiefs  are  very 
ignorant.'"  Kaahumanu  then  conferred  with  the  well- 


130 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


disposed  chiefs,  and  came  to  a  decided  resolution  to  pro- 
tect Mr.  Richards. 

"The  next  morning  came  the  British  Consul  in  his  of- 
ficial dress,  with  Capt.  Buckle,  Boki,  Manuia  and  several 
merchants,  arid  with  an  air  of  confidence  and  import- 
ance entered  into  the  hall  of  the  council,  and  insisted  that 
Mr.  Richards  should  be  punished.  But  Kaahumanu  had 
made  up  her  mind,  and  she  told  them  her  decision;  and 
all  knew,  foreigners,  as  well  as  natives,  that  whatever 
they  might  afterwards  say  would  be  like  the  beating  of 
the  sea  against  a  rock.  The  matter,  of  course,  was  ended." 

At  a  general  council,  held  by  order  of 
government,  it  was  proposed  to  reduce 
the  edicts,  which  had  been  hitherto  is- 
sued according  to  the  will  of  the  individ- 
ual governors,  into  a  species  of  national 
code,  which  should  embrace  penalties, 
based  upon  the  principles  of  civilized 
lands.  As  they  were  to  include  the 
selling  of  ardent  spirits,  and  restrictions 
upon  certain  liberties  which  heretofore 
had  been  free  as  the  winds,  the  opposi- 
tion was  strong.  The  vengeance  of  the 
British  government  was  threatened  by 
the  English  consul,  if  they  dared  to  leg- 
islate for  themselves.  He  prevailed  so 
far  as  to  defer  the  execution  to  an  in- 
definite period,  of  all  the  laws  enacted, 
except  those  for  murder,  theft  and  adul- 
tery. The  whole  were  printed  and  dis- 
tributed for  the  information  of  the  people. 

Two  years  before,  an  attempt  had 
been  made  to  introduce  a  municipal  code 
of  a  similar  character.  The  regents  had 
invited  some  of  the  missionaries  to  be 
present  at  the  council  at  which  the  sev- 
eral clauses  were  to  be  discussed.  It 
was  rumored  that  the  Decalogue  was  to 
be  the  basis  of  the  new  regulations. 
Some  of  the  foreigners,  irritated  at  these 
measures,  broke  in  upon  the  meeting, 
and  by  their  violence  and  menaces,  in- 
timidated the  chiefs  from  then  accom- 
plishing their  purposes.* 


CHAPTER  X. 

1827. — Arrival  of  Roman  Catholic  Trusts— Their  history 
— Reception — Policy — Opinion  of  chiefs — Foreigners — 
Spread  of  Protestantism — Boki's  rebellion — 18.9— Con- 
duct of  the  King — Legislation — Hostility  of  foreigners — 
Causes  of — Visit  of  U.  S.  ship  Vincennes — Fatal  expe- 
dition of  Boki~-Pen»ecution  of  Papists— Liliha's  attempt 
at  revolution— Removal  from  office — Kuakini  appointed 
Governor  of  Oahu — Jesuits  sent  away — Death  of  Kaa- 
bumanu,  1832 — Succeeded  by  Kinau — Kauikeouli  as- 
sumes the  government — His  abolition  of  taboos — Effects 
— Keaction— 1834. 

THE  year  1S27  is  memorable  for  the 
introduction  of  the  .Romish  mission,  and 
the  commencement  of  the  fulfillment  of 

*  Stewart's  Visit  to  the  South  Seas,  voL2,  p.  149. 


the  desire  of  Mr.  Charlton,  the  founding 
of  a  rival  faith ;  though,  could  he  have 
foreseen  in  its  results,  the  establishment 
of  a  French  interest,  which  well  nigh 
led  to  the  supremacy  of  that  rival  na- 
tion, his  jealousy  would  doubtless  have 
created  a  coldness  towards  it,  as  great 
as  at  first  his  apparent  cordiality.  Its 
origin  was  as  low  as  the  measures  to 
establish  it  were  base  and  deceptive. 
After  the  departure  of  Boki  from  Lon- 
don, Rives,  who  had  been  dismissed 
from  the  royal  train,  went  to  France ; 
there,  by  fictitious  representations  of 
his  wealth  and  importance  at  the  Ha- 
waiian Islands,  of  the  real  condition  of 
which  the  French  were  ignorant,  having 
no  intercourse  at  that  time,  he  acquired 
notoriety,  the  greater,  as  it  was  supposed 
he  had  held  a  responsible  office  about 
the  person  of  the  sovereign.  This  he 
turned  to  his  advantage,  contracting  for 
a  large  quantity  of  goods,  which  he  was 
to  pay  for  upon  arrival  at  Oahu.  Arti- 
sans and  priests  were  advertised  for,  to 
go  out  under  his  patronage,  and  labor- 
ers to  work  upon  his  plantations.  In 
July,  1S26,  Rev.  John  Alexius  Bache- 
lot  was  appointed  Apostolic  Prefect  of 
the  Sandwich  Islands,  by  Pope  Leo 
XII.  Messrs.  Armand  and  Short,  with 
four  mechanics,  were  to  accompany  him. 
Church  ornaments,  to  the  amount  of 
several  thousand  dollars,  were  engaged, 
which,  with  the  passage  money,  were 
to  be  paid  for  by  Rives,  at  Honolulu. 
He  took  passage  in  another  ship  for 
the  Pacific,  and  instead  of  going  to  the 
islands,  landed  upon  the  western  coast 
of  America,  where  he  soon  squandered 
his  money  and  lost  his  credit.  His  fate 
is  not  known,  but  he  never  ventured  to 
appear  before  the  chiefs,  by  whom  he 
had  been  discarded,  or  to  meet  his  un- 
fortunate countrymen,  whom  he  had 
been  the  means  of  deluding  into  exile. 

The  ship  Comet,  Captain  Plassard, 
sailed  from  Bordeaux,  with  the  goods 
and  missionaries,  in  the  early  part  of 
1827;  arrived  at  Honolulu  July  7th, 
and  anchored  outside  the  reef.  No  per- 
son appeared  to  receive  the  property,  or 
welcome  the  priests.  Plassard,  unable 
to  sell  his  cargo,  unceremoniously  land- 
ed his  passengers,  in  violation  of  a  law 
which  required  permission  first  to  be  ob- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


131 


tained.     He  was  informed  by  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  statute,  and  ordered  to  take 
them  away.     Being  beyond  the   range  j 
of  the   batteries,  he   determined  not  to 
comply,  alleging  that  he  "  had  had  trou-  j 
ble  enough  with  them ; "   and  expense  i 
also,  for  no  passage   money  was  paid,  j 
The  priests  were   thus   left   dependent 
upon  their  own  exertions  for  a  subsist- 
ence.    They  procured  a  house  from  an 
American,  and  lived  in  company  with 
the   mechanics,  in  an  humble  manner. 
By  the  natives  they  were  treated  in  the 
same  way  as  other  foreigners. 

Bold,  by  command  of  the  regent,  had 
been  bearer  of  the  order  for  their  ex- 
pulsion. He  understood  the  general 
distinctions  between  the  Roman  and 
Protestant  systems  of  theology,  and  pro- 
fessed his  willingness  to  treat  them 
kindly  while  they  remained ;  but  as  the 
islanders  had  already  received  one  set 
of  teachers,  with  whom  they  were  per- 
fectly satisfied,  discordant  doctrines 
would  create  unpleasant  dissensions,  in 
so  small  and  rude  a  nation.  In  power- 
ful and  enlightened  countries,  like  the 
United  States  and  England,  he  remark- 
ed, when  discussing  the  propriety  of 
their  remaining,  numerous  denomina- 
tions could  exist  in  comparative  har- 
mony; but  with  them,  difference  in  their 
present  condition  would  beget  conten- 
tion, and  it  was  better  that  they  should 
leave.  The  opinion  of  Boki  obtains  to 
the  present  day,  and  the  king  has  re- 
peatedly said,  that  had  the  Protestants 
sought  a  footing  after  Roman  Catholi- 
cism had  been  established,  they  would 
have  met  with  a  similar  repulse. 

The  priests,  ignorant  of  the  language 
and  customs  of  the  Hawaiians,  easily 
became  the  dupes  of  foreigners,  who  de- 
sired to  use  them  as  an  additional  re- 
source for  overturning  the  existing  order 
of  things.  By  false  representations  they 
had  been  seduced  to  leave  France,  and 
by  the  same  system  of  deception  were 
they  allured  to  remain.  Bachelot  and 
Short— Armand  having  been  lost  over- 
board on  the  passage — appear  to  have 
been  men  of  simple  and  pious  habits, 
and  desirous  of  effecting  good  in  accord- 
ance with  the  mandates  of  their  church. 
Had  they  been  dropped  among  an  en- 
tirely heathen  tribe,  their  zeal,  instruc- 


tions and  purity  of  lives  would  have 
won  respect,  and  success  crowned  their 
labors. 

Deluded  into  the  belief  that  the  island- 
ers groaned  under  the  tyranny  of  priest- 
ridden  chiefs,  and  that  numbers,  if  they 
dared,  would  hail  with  joy  their  pres- 
ence, these  men  pertinaciously  deter- 
mined to  remain  at  every  hazard.  That 
they  had  ever  received  permission  from 
government,  they  never  claimed.  Bache- 
lot, in  a  letter  published  in  the  "  Annals 
of  the  Propagation  of  Faith,"  writes, 
"  we  had  never  obtained  the  formal  yes 
in  relation  to  our  remaining  on  these 
islands ;  "  and  a  little  later,  he  says,  "  it 
never  came  into  my  mind  to  ask  for  it, 
till  it  was  too  late."  They  well  knew 
that  their  stay  was  in  violation  of  the 
express  orders  of  the  government  and 
the  general  wishes  of  the  nation ;  yet, 
with  an  effrontery  that  shows  a  sad  want 
of  moral  principle,  they  elsewhere  relate 
the  pitiful  subterfuges  which  they  em- 
ployed to  deceive  -the  chiefs.  These 
accorded  with  the  spirit  of  fanaticism, 
but  are  a  sad  comment  upon  the  candor 
and  boldness  of  the  evangelist  by  whose 
authority  their  church  claims  ecclesi- 
astical supremacy.  The  kindness  and 
forbearance  of  the  chiefs  to  them  at  this 
era,  deserve  notice.  Unwilling  to  do 
them  injury,  they  suffered  them  to  re- 
main and  commence  their  labors,  think- 
ing that  they  would  voluntarily  obey  the 
injunction  for  departure  so  soon  as  means 
could  be  provided. 

On  the  14th  of  July,  they  celebrated 
their  first  mass  j  a  small  chapel  for 
worship  was  opened  in  January,  1828. 
Through  the  kindness  of  the  American 
mission,  they  were  furnished  with  copies 
of  their  works  in  the  Hawaiian  tongue, 
to  enable  them  to  prosecute  their  studies. 
A  small  congregation  was  gathered, 
principally  of  those  foreigners  who  con- 
formed to  their  communion.  To  them, 
their  religious  services  were  valuable  ; 
and  no  one  can  doubt  the  justice  of  al- 
lowing all  to  worship  God  according  to 
the  dictates  of  conscience.  Of  this,  the 
government  seemed  to  have  been  aware, 
and  offered  no  molestation.  Curiosity 
attracted  some  natives  to  witness  the 
ceremonies  ;  they  speedily  reported  that 
images  were  worshiped.  This  excited 


132 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


much  surprise,  and  drew  many  of  the 
chiefs  to  the  chapel ;  among  them  the 
young  king.  He  afterwards  confessed 
he  could  scarcely  avoid  laughing  at  the 
absurdity  of  worshiping  a  lifeless  stock.* 
This  led  to  an  investigation  of  the  new 
rites ;  the  popish  doctrines  of  veneration 
of  holy  relics,  use  of  images,  fasts  and 
feasts,  were  found  strikingly  analogous 
to  their  previous  idolatry.  To  use  the 
words  of  the  chiefs,  "  this  new  religion 
was  all  about  worshiping  images  and 
dead  men's  bones,  and  taboo  on  meat." 
Any  one  who  has  examined  the  external 
forms  of  the  two  systems,  will  perceive 
that  this  was  a  natural  conclusion  to 
their  uninstructed  minds.  How  far  this 
similarity  may  have  originated  in  the 
teachings  of  their  early  Spanish  visitors, 
it  would  be  an  interesting  query  to  de- 
termine. The  usual  objection  will  be 
urged,  that  the  pictures  and  images 
were  representations  and  memorials  of 
divine  things,  and  not  in  themselves  ob- 
jects of  worship.  The  distinction  be- 
tween the  idols  and  the  spiritual  essences, 
of  which  they  were  merely  intended  to 
convey  the  outward  ideas,  was  equally 
as  well  understood  by  the  priests  and 
chiefs,  as  the  difference  between  the 
images  of  the  Roman  church  and  the 
holy  personages  whose  impress  they 
bore,  is  by  enlightened  Romanists.  But 
by  the  mass  of  ignorant  worshipers  of 
either  faith,  this  distinction  was  either 
altogether  lost,  or  little  borne  in  remem- 
brance. The  chiefs  and  common  orders 
universally  recognized  the  identity  of 
forms,  and  were  fearful  that  the  predic- 
tions of  those  foreigners  who  favored  its 
increase,  would  prove  true.  The  de- 
struction of  their  old  faith  had  brought 
civil  war;  the  introduction  of  another, 
which  from  its  many  points  of  semblance 
was  supposed  would  spread  rapidly 
among  the  discontented,  and  those  who 
looked  back  with  desiring  eyes  to  the 
era  when  "  the  tide  of  free-eating  "  had 
not  spread  over  the  land  and  its  good 
gifts  were  the  birthright  of  the  priestly 
favored  few.  This  was  the  more  to  be 
feared,  as  it  had  the  active  support  of 
the  British  consul  and  his  partisans. 
From  these  circumstances  originated 
the  hostility  of  the  government  to  'its 

*  Manuscript  letter  to  William  IV. 


introduction  ;  with  them  it  was  a  politi- 
cal question,  as  well  as  one  of  religious 
welfare.  The  strong  connection  which 
the  idolatry  of  their  old  system  and  the 
rites  of  the  Roman  church  bore  in  their 
minds,  was  pointedly  expressed  by  Kaa- 
humanu,  some  time  afterward,  in  her  re- 
ply to  Mr.  Bingham,  who  remonstrated 
with  her  upon  the  punishment  of  the 
converts  to  that  faith.  "  You  have  no 
law,"  said  he,  "  that  will  apply."  She 
immediately  referred  him  to  the  edict 
against  idolatry,  promulgated  in  1819, 
replying,  "  for  their  worship  is  like  that 
which  we  have  forsaken." 

Such  were  the  natural  inferences  of 
native  intellect ;  other  causes  tended 
to  strengthen  their  impressions.  Boki's 
bias,  both  from  conviction  and  preju- 
dice, imbibed  while  in  England,  was 
then  decidedly  Protestant ;  it  has  been 
seen  how  his  opinions  influenced  the 
chiefs  in  their  first  decisions,  before 
an  acquaintance  had  been  formed  with 
these  new  rites.  Foreigners,  whose 
principles  of  the  faith  in  which  they  had 
been  instructed,  had  not  been  swallow- 
ed up  in  hostility  to  all  religion,  or 
whose  impressions  of  Romanism  had 
been  derived  mostly  from  Spanish  Amer- 
ica, strongly  urged  upon  the  govern- 
ment the  impolicy  of  allowing  its  intro- 
duction. Some  with  more  zeal  than 
propriety,  taught  them  of  the  long  and 
bloody  persecutions  of  Europe,  the  in- 
quisition, crusades,  papal  supremacy, 
and  all  the  iniquities  of  its  most  corrupt 
age.  These  sunk  deep  into  their  minds, 
and  their  fears,  magnified  by  ignorance 
of  history,  conjectured  like  evils  for 
their  dominions.  The  continued  disre- 
regard  of  the  priests  to  their  injunctions, 
confirmed  these  sentiments. 

As  the  proselytism  of  natives  slowly 
progressed,  and  the  Romish  mission 
gave  indications  of  permanency,  the 
Protestant  missionaries,  by  force  of  ar- 
gument, teaching,  and  all  the  influence 
they  could  lawfully  employ,  endeavored 
to  arrest  its  progress.  The  minds  of 
the  chiefs  were  sufficiently  established  ; 
the  variable  disposition  of  the  mass  was 
feared.  Sermons,  defending  the  theol- 
ogy of  Protestantism,  and  attacking  the 
dogmas  of  tlie  hostile  church,  were  ut- 
tered from  every  pulpit ;  tracts  gave  fur- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


133 


ther  circulation  to  their  opinions,  and  a 
war  of  discussion  was  commenced  and 
actively  pursued.  Government  lent  its 
aid,  and  unfortunately  for  the  principle, 
though  necessarily  for  its  support,  church 
and  state  were  more  closely  united  than 
ever.  In  the  American  missionaries, 
the  chiefs  saw  friends,  who  had  triumph- 
ed over  every  prejudice,  and  proved 
their  sincerity  and  devotedness  by  years 
of  toil  and  usefulness.  In  the  French- 
men, lawless  intruders,  tools  of  a  vio- 
lent faction,  that  assailed  both  with 
equal  acrimony.  Consequently,  the  na- 
tion became  confirmed  in  friendship  to- 
ward the  former,  and  more  inimical  to 
the  latter.  The  American  missionaries 
were  charged  with  originating  all  the 
acts  of  the  government,  prejudicial  to 
the  priests  and  their  neophytes.  So  far 
as  their  influence  created  an  opposition 
to  their  tenets,  this  was  true ;  it  was 
due  to  their  own  principles,  and  to  the 
requests  of  the  chiefs  and  the  desires  of 
the  people,  that  the  errors  of  Romanism 
should  be  refuted ;  the  more  vigorous 
the  attack,  the  more  powerful  the  de- 
fence ;  yet  there  were  found  Protestants 
who  reviled  them,  for  not  welcoming 
those  whose  success  would  have  proved 
their  destruction ;  and  some  even  of 
their  own  number  have  felt  a  disposition 
to  gloss  over  their  efforts  to  oppose  its 
establishment,  as  if  ashamed  of  their 
zeal.  So  far  as  it  may  have  exceeded 
the  bounds  of  truth  or  charity,  and  in 
polemical  contests,  words  and  argu- 
ments are  not  always  sufficiently  weigh- 
ed, they  may  hang  their  heads.  Mul- 
titudes can  attest  their  views  to  have 
been  derived  from  their  teachings,  but 
the  government  openly  avowed  its  acts 
to  be  its  own. 

Every  additional  band  of  American 
missionaries  was  welcomed  by  the  chiefs. 
Under  their  tuition,  instruction  rapidly 
spread ;  a  greater  interest  was  mani- 
fested in  religious  exercises,  though  the 
outward  show  of  morality  was  far  great- 
er than  its  real  progress. 

The  greatest  obstacle  to  the  advance- 
ment of  Christianity,  was  the  relapse  of 
Boki  and  his  wife,  carrying  with  them  a 
large  number  of  adherents,  who  soon 
formed  a  dangerous  party  in  the  state. 
The  rigidness  of  the  chiefs  more  imme- 


diately under  the  influence  of  the  mis- 
sionaries, was  averse  to  the  dispositions 
of  these  rulers ;  and  the  seductions  of 
pleasure,  and  the  unceasing  importuni- 
ties of  foreign  advisers,  finally  overcame 
their  better  resolutions,  They  aban- 
doned themselves  to  intemperance ;  con- 
tracted debts,  and  squandered  the  re- 
sources which  had  been  collected  for 
extinguishing  those  of  Liholiho.  On  a 
smaller  scale,  the  general  license  of  his 
reign  was  repeated,  and  the  island  of 
Oahu  groaned  under  renewed  exactions. 
Boki  was  induced  to  aim  at  the  regency; 
the  party  that  had  led  him  astray,  as 
easily  bound  him  to  the  interests  of  the 
papists,  and  for  a  while  he  was  their 
steady  friend,  while  they  identified  them- 
selves with  him,  a  conspirator  against 
the  government.  "  The  two  consuls, 
English  and  American,  were  particularly 
attached  to  him."*  The  chief  hindrance 
which  the  government  has  received 
even  to  this  day  in  the  establishment  of 
law  and  order  has  been  from  the  hostile 
attitude  and  machinations  of  foreign  of- 
ficials, who,  forgetful  of  their  duty,  have 
been  more  bent  upon  engendering  dis- 
content and  embarrassing  the  rulers, 
both  in  their  internal  and  external  rela- 
tions, than  in  attending  to  their  legiti- 
mate offices.  The  young  king,  likewise, 
fell  into  dissipation,  and  his  example 
rendered  this  party  the  more  dangerous. 
The  life  of  Kaahumanu  was  endangered 
and  a  revolution  meditated.  An  attempt 
was  made  to  corrupt  many  of  the  chiefs  ; 
largesses  of  lands  were  distributed,  and 
numbers  were  drawn  over  to  Boki,  until 
he  found  himself  at  the  head  of  a  for- 
midable conspiracy.  Arms  were  pre- 
pared, and  both  sides  expected  some 
decisive  movement.  Boki  encamped  at 
Waikiki,  Oahu,  menacing  the  town  of 
Honolulu.  Kekuanaoa,  his  fellow-voy- 
ager to  England,  went  alone  to  his 
camp,  and  by  his  persuasions  finally 
induced  him  to  give  over  any  overt  de- 
signs, and  be  reconciled  with  govern- 
ment. He  resumed  his  offices,  though 
still  disaffected.  Under  his  easy  ad- 
ministration, the  grosser  practices  of 
the  inhabitants  were  in  some  degree  re- 
vived, although  no  positive  difficulties 
were  experienced.  Kaahumanu  and  the 


Annals  of  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith,  vol.  6,  p.  94. 


134 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


king  made  the  tour  of  Oahu,  and  after- 
wards sailed  for  Maui,  where  Hoapili 
and  Nahienaena  joined  them  in  a  pro- 
gress around  all  the  windward  islands, 
by  which  the  kingdom  became  quieted. 

This  year,  1829,  the  king  began  to 
take  an  active  part  in  the  affairs  of  gov- 
ernment. He  was  now  nearly  sixteen 
years  of  age,  and  had  improved  much 
under  the  instruction  of  his  teachers. 
On  the  3d  of  July,  a  thatched  meeting- 
house, one  hundred  and  sixty-nine  feet 
in  length  by  sixty-one  in  breadth,  built 
by  order  of  government,  at  Honolulu, 
was  solemnly  dedicated.  Most  of  the 
high  chiefs  were  present ;  the  king  ap- 
peared, dressed  in  his  rich  Windsor  uni- 
form ;  and  his  sister,  superbly  attired, 
sat  beside  him,  on  a  sofa  in  front  of  the 
pulpit.  Four  thousand  natives  were  as- 
sembled. Before  the  religious  exercises 
commenced,  the  king  arose  and  address- 
ed the  congregation,  saying  that  "he 
had  built  this  house,  and  he  now  pub- 
licly gave  it  to  God,"  and  declared  his 
wish  that  "  his  subjects  would  serve  His 
laws  and  learn  His  word."  After  the 
services  were  closed,  the  princess  made 
a  similar  address,  and  the  king  con- 
cluded by  publicly  engaging  in  prayer. 

Complaint  has  been  made  against  the 
Hawaiian  rulers,  that  they  too  literally 
based  their  government  upon  the  strict- 
est moral  principles  of  the  Scriptures. 
It  was  fit  that  powerful  remedies  should 
be  used  for  violent  diseases.  Besides 
they  knew  no  other  course.  The  crimes 
so  prevalent,  were  seen  to  violate  the 
letter  of  the  divine  injunctions ;  conse- 
quently the  simple  rules  deduced  from 
them  were  applied  with  a  vigor  and  rig- 
idness,  which  formed  a  powerful  contrast 
to  the  saturnalia  of  former  years.  As 
usual,  the  faults  of  execution  were  at- 
tributed to  the  missionaries,  and  they 
were  charged  with  endeavoring  to  crush 
the  free  spirit  of  the  nation,  and  substi- 
tuting long  prayers,  fasting  and  preach- 
ing for  innocent  recreations  and  com- 
mercial pursuits.  It  is  perhaps  true  that 
some  of  the  Protestant  preaching  has 
had  an  effect  to  deaden  industry  by  an 
unwise  prohibition  of  the  ornaments  of 
dress  and  person,  which  could  be  pro- 
cured only  by  money,  and  money  only 
by  labor.  Savages  require  a  strong  stim- 


ulus to  work,  and  habits  of  industry  are 
better  commenced  this  way  than  not  at 
all.  It  would  have  been  found  that  one 
want  would  beget  another,  so  that  not 
only  the  desires  but  tastes  of  civilized 
life  would  have  been  hastened. 

The  inconsistency  of  expecting  from 
untutored  rulers,  who  were  feeling  their 
way  toward  civilization,  the  perfection 
of  legislation  which  centuries  of  experi- 
ence had  accumulated  in  more  favored 
countries,  never  influenced  a  liberality 
of  sentiment  with  their  defamers.  Those 
who  had  lived  so  long  away  from  moral 
restraint,  were  restless  under  its  spread. 
That  savages,  on  whose  sensuality  they 
had  gloated,  and  from  whose  resources 
wealth  had  been  created,  should  dare  to 
bring  them  within  the  pale  of  law,  was 
an  insult  beyond  endurance.  As  the 
folds  of  a  better  public  opinion  gathered 
around  them,  the  more  bitter  but  useless 
were  their  struggles. 

On  the  7th  of  October,  the  king  issued 
a  proclamation  in  his  own  name,  and 
that  of  the  regent  and  the  high  chiefs, 
in  which  he  declared  that  the  laws  of 
his  kingdom  forbade  murder,  theft,  licen- 
tiousness, retailing  ardent  spirits,  sab- 
bath-breaking and  gambling,  and  that 
these  laws  would  be  equally  enforced  on 
subject  and  foreigner.  This  was  the 
more  necessary,  as  cases  of  collision 
not  unfrequently  occurred,  which  if  not 
brought  within  the  reach  of  government, 
would  eventually  lead  to  retaliation  and 
revenge. 

Previous  to  this  enactment,  it  had 
been  promulgated,  that  "  Christian  mar- 
riage was  proper  for  man  and  woman," 
and  to  put  an  end  to  the  polygamy  and 
polyandry  of  the  natives,  as  well  as  to 
draw  a  veil  over  the  dissoluteness  of 
foreigners,  penalties  were  enforced  for 
the  violation  of  the  statute.  All  who 
continued  to  live  with  one  partner,  after 
a  certain  date,  were  to  be  considered 
legally  man  and  wife.  An  act  like  this 
had  become  necessary  to  check  the  most 
prominent  sin  of  the  nation,  and  to  en- 
force the  sanctity  of  that  relation  upon 
which,  above  all  others,  the  well-being 
of  society  depends. 

Strange  as  it  may  appear  at  this  day, 
although  the  most  vicious  could  but  ac- 
quiesce in  its  propriety,  opposition  was 


HISTORY   OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


135 


aroused  to  even  this  salutary  law.  Mr. 
Charlton,  with  pompous  words,  strove  to 
bully  the  chiefs ;  he  declared  it  neces- 
sary for  all  laws  passed  by  them,  to  re- 
ceive the  sanction  of  the  king  of  Eng- 
land :  five  hundred  men  were  said  to  be 
under  his  control,  and  it  was  boasted 
that  he  had  sufficient  force  to  oppose  the 
regent,  remove  the  governors,  take  pos- 
session of  the  forts,  and  imprison  the 
royal  family.  His  own  creatures  were 
to  be  appointed  to  office.  But  his  threats 
were  unheeded.  Unawed  by  the  menaces 
of  opposition,  they  steadily  pursued  a 
policy  which  had  become  necessary  for 
the  preservation  of  order.  Those  who 
now  stood  at  the  head  of  the  nation  had 
once  been  drunkards,  and  none  were 
better  qualified  to  judge  of  the  evils  aris- 
ing from  the  use  of  ardent  spirits.  They 
were  well  acquainted  with  the  strength 
of  the  acquired  taste  which  prevailed 
among  their  people;  and  were  convinced 
that  restriction  alone  could  prevent  its 
increase.  On  no  point  had  a  greater 
effort  of  principle  been  shown.  The 
policy  then  established  has  been,  with 
occasional  relapses,  steadily  pursued  to 
the  present  time.  Boki  let  land  at  Oahu 
for  sugar  plantations,  the  produce  of 
which  was  to  be  converted  into  rum. 
Kaahumanu  at  once  rescinded  the  lease; 
and  from  that  period  it  has  been  the 
condition  on  which  all  lands  are  leased, 
that  no  ardent  spirits  are  to  be  manufac- 
tured or  sold  on  them. 

The  arrival  of  the  United  States  ship 
Vincennes,  Captain  Finch,  soon  after 
these  attempts  at  establishing  a  polity, 
which  should  embrace  all  classes  and 
misdemeanors,  confirmed  the  resolution 
of  the  chiefs.  The  government  of  the 
United  States  had  sent  gifts  to  the  king 
and  principal  chiefs,  which  were  pre- 
sented in  form ;  also  a  letter,  congratu- 
lating them  on  the  progress  of  civilization 
and  religion  in  his  dominions,  and  re- 
commending earnest  attention  to  "  the 
religion  of  the  Christian's  Bible."  It 
also  added,  "  the  President  also  anxious- 
ly hopes  that  peace  and  kindness  and 
justice  will  prevail  between  your  people 
and  those  citizens  of  the  United  States 
who  visit  your  islands,  and  that  the  reg- 
ulations of  your  government  will  be 
such  as  to  enforce  them  upon  all.  Our 


citizens  who  violate  your  laws,  or  inter- 
fere with  your  regulations,  violate  at  the 
same  time  their  duty  to  their  own  gov- 
ernment and  country,  and  merit  censure 
and  punishment."  Here  was  a  positive 
condemnation  of  the  conduct  of  the  crew 
of  the  Dolphin,  and  ample  sanction  to 
the  new  legislation.  The  rage  of  those 
whose  assertions  were  so  speedily  and 
unexpectedly  disproved,  was  extreme, 
and  vented  in  a  protest  of  singular  na- 
ture to  the  American  government.  The 
advice  bestowed  by  Captain  Finch  was 
of  the  most  judicious  character,  and  his 
whole  intercourse  of  eminent  utility  to 
the  best  interests  of  the  nation  and  his 
countrymen.  Through  his  negotiations, 
debts  to  Americans  to  the  amount  of  fifty 
thousand  dollars  were  acknowledged, 
with  a  pledge  of  speedy  liquidation. 
The  payment  was  to  be  made  in  sandal- 
wood,  and  the  several  islands  were  as- 
sessed their  respective  amounts.  After 
the  departure  of  the  Vincennes,  its  col- 
lection was  industriously  enforced. 

In  November,  a  vessel  arrived  at 
Honolulu,  from  which  it  was  communi- 
cated to  Boki,  that  some  where  in  the 
South  Pacific,  an  island  abounding  in 
sandal-wood  had  been  fallen  in  with. 
Its  situation  was  a  secret,  known  only 
to  few ;  one  of  the  number  proposed  to 
the  governor  to  fit  out  an  expedition  and 
take  possession  of  it.  The  prospect  of 
so  speedily  acquiring  wealth,  and  the 
desire  of  wiping  out  his  debts  and  re- 
trieving his  credit,  were  too  tempting  to 
be  resisted.  The  beautiful  man-of-war 
brig  Kamehameha,  and  a  smaller  one, 
were  selected.  Each  was  well  provided 
with  arms  and  ammunition  and  stores 
for  colonizing.  Including  soldiers,  sail- 
ors and  attendants,  nearly  five  hundred 
people  embarked,  among  whom  were 
the  flower  of  the  youth  of  Oahu.  Ten 
foreigners  also  were  enlisted  for  the 
navigation  of  the  vessels.  The  com- 
mand of  the  smaller  vessel,  the  Becket, 
was  given  to  Manui,  a  confidential  agent 
of  the  governor's,  and  who  had  made 
the  voyage  to  England  with  him.  Al- 
though of  but  one  hundred  tons,  one 
hundred  and  seventy-nine  individuals 
were  crowded  on  board  for  a  long  voy- 
age through  the  tropics.  With  Boki, 
the  press  was  even  greater.  Hastily 


136 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


equipped  and  insufficiently  manned,  they 
sailed  on  the  2d  of  December,  against 
the  advice  and  remonstrances  of  many 
of  the  merchants,  who  endeavored  to  in- 
duce Boki  to  abandon  the  undertaking. 
The  infatuation  which  pervaded  the 
minds  of  the  youths,  was  equal  to  the 
lust  of  gold  which  led  thousands  of 
Spanish  hidalgos,  in  earlier  days,  from 
homes  of  comfort  and  happiness,  to 
scenes  of  toil,  famine  and  death.  Wo- 
men wailed  the  departure  of  their  hus- 
bands, sons  and  brothers,  as  if  the  grave 
had  closed  upon  them.  Previous  to  his 
departure,  Boki  thus  addressed  his  peo- 
ple :  "  Attend,  my  friends,  hear  what  I 
have  to  say ;  you  know  my  sin  is  great ; 
it  smells  from  Hawaii  to  Kauai ;  it  is 
enormous,  and  it  is  my  own,  and  not 
another's.  I  am  about  to  take  a  voyage 
to  extinguish  the  debt  of  the  king,  and 
not  for  unworthy  purposes." 

The  expedition  first  touched  at  the 
island  of  Rotuma,  one  of  the  New  Heb- 
rides. Here  discontent  from  the  hard- 
ships of  the  voyage  began  to  arise. 
Boki  treated  the  inhabitants  of  that  little 
isle  with  the  rapacity  of  a  conqueror, 
and  finally  compelled  a  number  to  work 
in  cutting  sandal-wood.  Erromanga, 
the  island  to  which  they  were  bound, 
was  distant  but  a  few  days'  sail.  Boki 
having  completed  his  preparations,  sail- 
ed ten  days  in  advance  of  the  Becket. 
His  fate  has  never  been  with  certainty 
ascertained.  But  from  the  careless 
habits  of  the  natives  with  their  pipes, 
and  the  quantity  of  powder  on  deck,  it 
is  conjectured  that  the  brig  was  blown 
up,  though  not  a  fragment,  which  could 
be  identified,  has  ever  been  found.  The 
Becket  arrived  at  Erromanga,  and  not 
meeting  her  consort,  her  disastrous  end 
could  only  be  surmised.  Manui  remain- 
ed there  five  weeks,  committing  outrages 
on  the  natives,  which  led  to  frequent 
hostilities.  The  object  of  the  expedition 
was  entirely  defeated.  A  distemper 
broke  out  which  destroyed  many;  among 
them  Manui.  The  Becket  then  sailed 
for  Oahu,  and  a  scene  of  horror  ensued, 
which  baffles  description.  Crowded  with 
the  sick,  the  dying  and  the  dead,  the 
vessel  became  a  floating  charnel-house. 
The  sufferings  of  the  living  were  aggra- 
vated by  famine;  they  lay  under  a  burn- 


ing sun,  enduring  agonies  of  thirst,  and 
were  destitute  of  medicines  or  medical 
skill ;  feebler  and  fainter,  day  by  day 
arose  the  groans  of  the  suffering  passen- 
gens  and  the  wails  of  the  almost  equally 
helpless  crew.  The  slow  progress  of 
the  brig  was  tracked  by  corpses.  The 
conduct  of  the  foreigners,  who  seem  to 
have  been  wrapt  in  the  selfishness  of 
despair,  was  barbarous,  and  its  remem- 
brance inflames  the  resentment  of  rela- 
tives to  this  day.  The  dying,  as  well  as 
the  dead,  were  reported  to  have  been 
cast  overboard.  In  addition  to  their 
original  numbers,  forty-seven  natives  of 
Rotuma  were  on  board ;  and  out  of  the 
two  hundred  and  twenty-six  souls  that 
composed  the  brig's  company,  but  twenty 
returned,  and  of  these  eight  were  for- 
eigners. Twenty  natives  had  been  left 
at  Rotuma,  on  their  way,  some  of  whom 
afterwards  found  their  way  back.  On 
the  3d  of  August,  1830,  the  Becket  ar- 
rived at  Honolulu,  and  as  the  news  of 
the  disaster  spread,  the  voice  of  weep- 
ing and  wailing  was  heard  by  night  and 
by  day.  The  loss  of  so  many  active, 
intelligent  men,  was  a  severe  blow  to 
the  nation.  Kaahumanu  was  on  Kauai 
when  the  expedition  was  fitted  out ;  had 
she  been  present,  it  is  supposed  she 
would  have  prevented  its  departure. 

Oahu  had  been  left  in  charge  of  Li- 
liha,  and  Kaikioewa  resumed  the  guar- 
dianship of  the  king.  Previous  to  his 
departure,  Boki  seemed  desirous  of  re- 
gaining the  esteem  of  his  fellow  chiefs. 
He  had  issued  an  order,  August  8th,  at 
the  command  of  Kaahumanu,  forbidding 
the  natives  to  attend  the  religious  ser- 
vices of  the  papists.  It  was  found  that 
their  proselytes  refused  to  attend  schools 
or  receive  the  rudiments  of  instruction ; 
and  that  through  their  influence,  the 
party  hostile  to  the  chiefs  was  increas- 
ing. However,  permission  was  granted 
for  the  continuance  of  their  labors  among 
foreigners,  but  they  were  enjoined  not 
to  allow  natives  to  enter  their  chapel. 
Despite  of  this  injunction,  numbers  re- 
ceived instruction ;  force  was  then  used 
to  compel  their  absence,  and  at  this  time 
commenced  what  has  been  called  "  the 
persecution."  Religious  intolerance  can- 
not be  justified  ;  but  the  question  arises, 
how  far  the  policy  of  the  government 


HISTORY   OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


137 


partook  of  that  character?  When  the 
manner  of  the  introduction  of  the  priests 
is  considered,  and  the  contumely  they 
exhibited  toward  the  government,  perse- 
vering in  remaining  against  the  wishes 
of.  the  rulers,  who  were  disinclined  to 
employ  force,  its  leniency  was  remarka- 
ble :  especially  when  the  imperious  Kaa- 
humanu  held  the  reins  of  state.  It  is 
true  that  Boki  favored  them,  but  only 
when  in  rebellion  against  the  legitimate 
authorities,  and  in  connection  with  the 
enemies  of  the  nation.  Leaning  on  him, 
and  duped  by  the  party  headed  by  the 
English  consul,  they  and  their  converts, 
who  were  very  few,  unfortunately  be- 
came identified  with  them. 

Political  views,  quite  as  much  as  re- 
ligious, occupied  their  attention  ;  and  it 
was  to  Boki  that  they  gave  their  sup- 
port, as  the  aspirant  for  the  highest  of- 
fice in  the  kingdom.  A  complete  revo- 
lution was  to  attend  his  success.  It  was 
the  desire  of  license  that  influenced  the 
mass  of  his  partisans  ;  creeds,  whether 
papal  or  protestant,  were  of  little  conse- 
quence in  their  eyes,  though  they  were 
glad  to  strengthen  their  cause  by  such 
valuable  auxiliaries  as  bigots  or  sincere 
converts  to  novel  doctrines  invariably 
make.  The  government  unwisely  im- 
posed fines  and  imprisonment  upon  the 
latter.  Too  powerless  to  have  disturbed 
the  peace  of  the  state,  it  would  have 
been  a  more  merciful  and  wiser  policy 
to  have  let  them  alone ;  but  it  is  not 
surprising  that  rulers  just  emerging 
from  the  grossest  despotism,  should  em- 
ploy more  of  physical  force  than  char- 
ity. Expostulation,  entreaties  and  ad- 
vice were  first  used ;  and  it  was  not 
until  the  chiefs  were  defied  that  they 
were  confined,  and  set  to  work  in  mak- 
ing stone  walls,  repairing  roads  and  fab- 
ricating mats — labors  to  which  they  had 
been  accustomed  from  their  infancy,  but 
now  aggravated  by  filthy  lodgings,  bad 
food,  and  the  contempt  and  rudeness 
common  to  the  lowest  orders,  particu- 
larly of  natives,  with  whom  malevolence 
to  the  unfortunate  had  always  been  an 
active  principle.  They  were  punished 
for  idolatry  ;  and  they  who  repeated  the 
offence  five  times,  either  by  worshiping 
at  the  chapel,  or  indulging  in  their  old 
rites,  were  obliged  to  remove  the  filth  of 
18 


the  fort  with  their  hands,  instead  of 
the  inhumanity  of  these  acts  being  at- 
tributed to  the  American  missionaries, 
their  mildness,  in  comparison  with  the 
bloody  executions  which  would  have 
awaited  these  offenders  but  a  few  years 
before,  is  owing  to  the  humanizing  spirit 
of  the  Christianity  they  had  introduced. 
Nine  years  of  instruction  had  sufficed  to 
produce  the  change.  What  might  not 
have  been  hoped  for  in  as  many  to  come. 
But  individuals,  too  prejudiced  and  nar- 
row-minded to  acknowledge  or  ascertain 
the  truth,  charged  those  whose  labors 
had  been  emphatically  turned  toward 
extinguishing  the  barbarism  of  the  olden 
regime  with  the  sole  responsibility  of 
these  unwise  acts.  The  American  mis- 
sionaries would  have  rejoiced  to  have 
seen  Romanism  driven  from  the  land 
through  the  intervention  of  enlightened 
public  sentiment ;  but  not  one  proof  can 
be  shown  that  they  ever  advocated  cru- 
elty. Individual  instances  there  were  of 
those  whose  minds,  illiberalized  by  sec- 
tarianism, looked  on  with  reprehensible 
apathy ;  but  the  spirit  of  the  body  was 
far  different. 

Romanists,  to  the  number  of  thirty, 
men  and  women,  were  incorporated  in 
the  ranks  of  common  malefactors,  and 
from  time  to  time  for  several  years, 
made  liable  to  similar  punishments.  But 
their  sufferings  have  been  greatly  exag- 
gerated. 

In  ten  years  from  the  commencement 
of  the  mission,  nine  hundred  schools, 
taught  by  native  teachers,  were  estab- 
lished, and  forty-four  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  ninety-five  learners  brought 
under  their  influence.  Kude  and  igno- 
rant as  were  the  former,  they  proved 
useful  to  the  latter,  by  aiding  in  forming 
correct  habits,  and  withdrawing  them 
from  scenes  of  doubtful  good. 

In  May,  1830,  the  king  and  Kaahu- 
manu  visited  the  windward  islands,  the 
government  of  Oahu  remaining  in  the 
hands  of  Liliha  and  her  partisans.  Dur- 
ing their  absence  the  laws  of  1829  were 
suffered  to  fall  into  disuse ;  immorality 
again  abounded;  and  gaming'and  drunk- 
enness were  unpunished.  Liliha  pre- 
pared to  maintain  her  supremacy  by  an 
appeal  to  arms,  as  it  had  been  rumored 
that  she  was  to  be  removed.  The  sym- 


138 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


pathies  of  a  large  body  of  foreigners 
were  with  her,  and  much  excitement 
prevailed.  The  king  publicly  committed 
the  charge  of  affairs  to  Kaahumanu, 
who  immediately  appointed  her  brother, 
Kuakini,  governor  of  Oahu.  JSaihe  was 
left  in  charge  of  Hawaii.  No  chief  was 
more  capable  in  an  exigency  of  this  na- 
ture than  Kuakini ;  to  the  stern  spirit  of 
his  father,  he  joined  the  intelligence  de- 
rived from  superior  advantages.  He 
spoke  English  well,  and  was  considered 
the  shrewdest  of  the  chieftains.  Troops 
were  landed  secretly,  and  at  several 
points,  at  once,  on  Oahu ;  the  forts  and 
military  stores  secured ;  the  revolution- 
ary party  completely  overawed,  and  its 
leaders  supplanted  in  office.  Kuakini 
entered  upon  the  duties  of  his  station 
with  a  determination  of  enforcing  the 
very  letter  of  the  law ;  this  was  done 
with  a  rigor  which  gave  cause  of  offence 
to  many  foreigners,  but  his  sternness 
quelled  every  appearance  of  insubordi- 
nation. He  was  fully  equal  to  the  task 
of  subduing  the  impertinence  of  lawless 
whites,  and  compelling  them  to  keep 
within  their  proper  spheres.  At  the 
same  time  his  officers,  with  a  rudeness 
which  was  inexcusable,  entered  private 
houses,  and  carried  liquor  from  tables. 
Horses  were  seized  from  their  owners 
for  violating  the  law  respecting  the  Sab- 
bath, but  were  eventually  released.  The 
violence  with  which  the  statutes  were 
now  enforced,  contrasted  forcibly  with 
the  laxity  of  the  previous  rule.  Armed 
bands  paraded  the  streets ;  grog-shops, 
gaming-houses  and  haunts  of  dissipation 
were  suppressed  ;  even  quiet  riding  on 
Sundays  was  forbidden.  But  the  strong 
arm  of  government  was  not  capable  of 
infusing  order  and  sobriety  into  a  disso- 
lute population ;  though  outward  deco- 
rum prevailed,  far  preferable  to  the 
former  laxity,  secret  means  of  indul- 
gence were  sought  out ;  all  his  meas- 
ures met  at  first  a  strong  opposition,  and 
many  continued  to  be  evaded.  It  was 
proposed  to  sell  rum  to  foreigners  only; 
Kuakini  replied,  "to  horses,  cattle  and 
hogs  you  may  sell  rum  ;  but  to  real 
men  you  must  not  on  these  shores."  A 
national  temperance  society  was  formed, 
in  the  objects  of  which  the  chiefs  cor- 
dially united. 


Entirely  to  suppress  all  opposition  to 
government,  Kuakini  next  determined  to 
send  away  the  Romish  priests;  on  the 
2d  of  April,  1831,  they  were  summoned 
to  the  fort,  and  ordered  to  leave  the 
islands  in  three  months.  As  they  mani- 
fested no  disposition  to  comply,  this 
order  was  repeated  twice  afterward. 
The  course  of  the  priests  is  somewhat 
remarkable,  and  sufficiently  obstinate 
and  deceptive  to  have  caused  harsher 
measures  in  a  more  civilized  nation.* 
Meanwhile,  they  continued  their  labors, 
and  among  the  disappointed  adherents 
of  Liliha,  gained  some  new  converts  ; 
the  most  noted  of  whom  was  an  aged 
sister  of  Kalanikupule,  the  late  king  of 
Oahu,  who  perished  at  the  battle  of 
Nuuanu,  but  whose  family,  though  de- 
prived of  all  political  influence,  was  by 
the  clemency  of  Kamehameha  allowed 
to  retain  many  of  the  advantages  of 
their  former  rank.  She  died  in  1837. 

The  duplicity  of  the  priests  being  now 
too  manifest  to  be  longer  disregarded,  if 
the  government  wished  to  retain  even 
the  shadow  of  power  within  their  own 
kingdom,  it  was  decided  to  send  them 
away  at  the  public  expense.  It  is  evi- 
dent throughout  all  the  transactions  of 
the  priests  and  their  partisans,  that  they 
wished  to  irritate  the  chiefs  to  measures, 


*  "That  we  might  appear  to  yield  in  some  degree  to 
the  demands  of  the  chiefs,  and  to  avoid  irritating  then), 
we  took  care,  when  any  vessel  was  about  to  deparl,  to 
request,  in  writing,  of  the  captain,  a  gratuitous  passage. 
We  did  this  in  respect  to  several ;  and  as  they  knew  our 
intentions,  they  answered  us,  also  in  writing,  and  abso- 
lutely refused  to  grant  our  request  ;  for  no  captain  was 
willing  to  engage  in  executing  the  sentence  pronounced 
against  us. 

"  A  short  time  afterward  a  Prussian  vessel  arrived,  the 
captain  of  which  brought  presents  from  the  king  of  Prus- 
sia to  the  young  king  of  the  Sandwich  Islands.  The  ar- 
rival of  this  vessel  furnished  an  occasion  for  a  new  attempt 
to  compel  us  to  leave  the  archipelago.  The  governor  of 
Hawaii  re-appeared.  '  Here,'  said  he  to  me,  '  is  a  ship 
from  near  your  own  country.  It  will  conduct  you  to  your 
own  land.'  '  What  you  say  is  reasonable,'  I  replied,  '  but 
who  will  pay  my  passage  ?  I  came  here  with  nothing 
but  my  body  and  the  word  of  God  ;  my  heart  has  not 
been  upon  the  things  of  this  world  ;  I  have  amassed  no 
money.'  '  Perhaps  he  will  take  you  for  nothing.'  •  It  is 
possible  :  but  ask  him  yourself,  and  you  shall  see.'  Kua- 
kini retired  with  this  answer.  The  captain  came  to  see 
us  ;  I  explained  to  him  our  situation;  he  obligingly  of- 
fered to  receive  us  on  board  of  his  vessel,  if  we  wished  to 
depart  ;  but  if  not,  he  told  us  to  make  an  application  to 
him  in  writing,  and  to  dictate  the  answer  which  we  wished 
him  to  make  :  which  was  done.  The  governor  of  Hawaii 
also  went  to  see  him,  and  urged  him  to  take  charge  of 
us.  The  Prussian  captain  answered  him  that  he  would 
do  it  with  pleasure,  but  that  before  M.  Patrick  and  I 
could  come  on  board,  he  must  be  paid  five  thousand  dol- 
lars, (more  than  twenty-five  thousand  francs.)  The  poor 
governor  had  a  great  desire  to  rid  himself  of  us,  but  he 
was  still  more  anxious  to  keep  his  money.  He  was  there- 
fore obliged  to  abandon  his  pr<j^ct." — Annals  of  the 
Propagation  of  the  Faith,  vol.  \Q,p.  370. 


HISTOEY  OF  TEE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


139 


which,  exaggerated  and  distorted  by 
their  representations,  should  wear  the 
appearance  of  religious  persecution,  and 
being  an  apparent  breach  of  the  laws  of 
nations,  involve  them  with  their  respect- 
ive governments.  Unfortunately,  they 
succeeded  but  too  well,  and  the  unde- 
sired  presence  of  these  papists,  with  the 
equally  unprovoked  insults  of  their  sup- 
porters, were  at  last  crowned  by  the  un- 
just interference  of  France. 

Letters  had  been  received  from  the 
prefect  of  the  Roman  Catholic  missions 
in  California,  inviting  the  priests  to  their 
aid,  as  their  services  were  greatly  need- 
ed. It  was  determined  to  land  them  in 
that  country ;  accordingly  a  native  brig, 
the  Waverly,  was  fitted  out  for  that 
service,  at  an  expense  of  one  thousand 
dollars.  On  the  7th  of  December,  Kaa- 
humanu  issued  a  proclamation,  in  which 
she  stated  the  reasons  for  thus  sending 
them  off;  that  they  had  remained  in 
defiance  of  their  orders,  and  by  them 
some  of  the  people  had  been  led  into 
seditious  practices ;  that  their  plea  for 
not  leaving  before  had  been,  "  We  have 
no  vessel  to  go  in  :  "  "  therefore  we  put 
them  on  board  our  vessel,  to  carry  them 
to  a  place  where  the  service  is  like  their 
own."  Certainly,  for  barbarians,  a  hu- 
mane consideration  to  be  exercised  to- 
ward such  obstinate  contemners  of  their 
laws. 

On  the  24th  they  were  embarked  ; 
and  on  the  28th  of  January,  1832,  were 
landed  at  San  Pedro,  California,  where 
they  were  welcomed  into  the  mission  of 
San  Gabriel,  without  incurring  further 
hardship  than  is  incidental  to  all  travel- 
ers in  those  parts.  The  mechanics  of 
the  mission  were  suffered  to  remain. 

Kaahumanu*  died  the  5th  of  June 
following,  in  the  58th  year  of  her  age. 


*  The  faith  she  entertained  of  a  happy  immortality  was 
simple  and  yet  effective.  On  the  night  of  the  4th,  when 
her  end  was  expected,  she  remarked — referring  to  the 
custom  of  her  nation,  which  requires  new  houses  to  be 
erected  in  whatever  part  of  her  territories  the  royal  lam- 
ily  were  to  visit — "  The  way  that  I  am  going  the  house 
is  prepared — send  the  thoughts  thither  rejoicing."  Her 
attachment  to  the  members  of  the  mission  was  of  (he 
most  devoted  nature,  mingled  with  gratitude  for  the 
change  they  had  been  instrumental  in  effecting.  When 
the  life  of  one  of  their  number  was  threatened  at  Lahaina, 
and  fears  were  entertained  that  violence  would  be  at- 
tempted by  certain  foreigners,  she  sent  for  him  to  come 
to  Honolulu.  Upon  landing,  taking  him  by  the  hand,  she 
led  him  through  the  fort,  and  showed  birn  her  magazines 
of  arms,  and  her  soldiers.  "These,"  said  she.  "are  all 
mine,  and  both  they  and  I  shall  perish  before  harm 
reaches  you." 


She  was  a  firm  and  conscientious  Chris- 
tian to  the  last;  beloved  by  those  who 
intimately  knew  her,  and  universally 
respected  for  her  abilities.  Her  remains 
were  deposited  in  the  royal  tomb  at 
Honolulu,  beside  those  of  Liholiho  and 
Kamamalu. 

After  the  death  of  Naihe,  which  oc- 
curred in  December,  1831,  Kuakini  re- 
turned to  his  proper  government  of 
Hawaii,  where  his  efforts  for  the  forci- 
ble suppression  of  vice  were  as  vigorous 
as  at  Oahu,  in  which  Kapiolani,  with 
more  gentleness  and  judgment,  joined. 

In  August,  1832,  the  United  States 
frigate  Potomac,  Commodore  Downes, 
arrived  at  Honolulu.  That  distinguished 
commander  exerted  himself  to  enlighten 
the  minds  of  the  chiefs,  while  he  treated 
them  with  the  courtesy  due  to  their  sta- 
tion. To  those  unacquainted  with  the 
peculiar  condition  of  Hawaiian  society, 
it  may  seem  puerile  to  mention  the  fre- 
quent visits  of  men-of-war.  But  they 
should  consider  that  the  deportment  of 
their  commanders  had  an  important  in- 
fluence either  to  sustain  the  chiefs  in 
their  attempts  at  exercising  their  just 
jurisdiction,  and  the  missionaries  in  their 
labors,  or  to  encourage  the  contemners 
of  the  one  and  the  opposers  of  the  other. 

In  the  early  part  of  1833,  Kauikeouli 
assumed  the  responsibilities  of  govern- 
ment, Kinau  holding  the  same  relative 
situation  to  him,  under  the  title  of  Kaa- 
humanu II.,  that  her  step-mother  did  to 
Liholiho.  The  character  and  capabili- 
ties of  Kinau  were  very  similar  to  those 
of  her  predecessor ;  before  her  conver- 
sion she  was  haughty,  cruel  and  disso- 
lute ;  afterward,  firm,  conscientious  and 
temperate.  The  king  had  acquired  a 
great  fondness  for  nautical  affairs,  and 
as  most  of  their  fine  vessels  had  been 
wrecked,  desired  to  purchase  a  brig  at 
an  expense  of  twelve  thousand  dollars. 
This  Kinau  and  the  other  chiefs  opposed, 
upon  the  ground  of  the  impolicy  of  incur- 
ring further  debts,  while  their  old  were 
undischarged.  The  king  reluctantly 
yielded ;  he  had  been  an  apt  scholar, 
and  had  given,  thus  far,  proofs  of  an 
amiable  disposition,  and  a  desire  to  rule 
with  sobriety.  But  power  and  youthful 
passions  are  strong  temptations;  of  them- 
selves they  might  have  been  sufficient  to 


140 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


have  led  him  into  a  course  of  dissipation, 
in  which  the  affairs  of  government  would 
have  been  relaxed.  But  the  endeavors 
of  certain  foreigners  were  unwearied  to 
wean  him  from  all  religious  obligations, 
and  to  render  him  an  easy  tool  in  their 
hands.  The  power  of  Boki's  faction  was 
too  far  gone  to  allow  of  hope  in  that 
quarter;  but  by  pandering  to  the  low 
tastes  of  a  semi-savage  monarch,  he 
might  be  won.  Accordingly  he  was  plied 
with  tempting  wines  and  liquors,  until 
his  better  resolutions  were  overpowered, 
and  he  acquired  a  thirst  as  strong  as 
that  of  his  predecessor,  though  his  in- 
dulgence was  by  no  means  equal.  Se- 
duced by  such  characters,  he  avoided 
his  counselors,  and  sought  the  society 
of  young,  unprincipled  men.  It  was 
urged  upon  him  to  take  off  all  taboos ; 
the  real  desires  of  the  natives  and  the 
hopelessness  of  the  labors  of  the  mis- 
sionaries would  then  be  apparent.  The 
generally  moral  condition  was  declared 
to  be  entirely  owing  to  the  absolutism  of 
the  chiefs ;  and  if  they  turned,  the  na- 
tion would  follow.  That  this  was  partly 
true,  no  missionary  could  deny.  They 
numbered  but  few  real  converts,  though 
they  justly  claimed  the  amelioration  of 
manners,  the  desire  of  instruction,  and 
much  of  the  gradual  change  for  the 
better,  to  be  the  result  of  their  labors. 
Still  following  the  example  of  the  rulers, 
it  had  become  fashionable  to  be  of  their 
belief;  all  important  offices  were  in  their 
hands ;  and  interest  more  than  intelli- 
gence conspired  to  produce  an  outward 
conformity  to  morality.  While  numbers, 
to  the  best  of  their  abilities,  were  Chris- 
tians, thousands  joined  their  ranks  from 
unworthy  motives.  Perhaps  in  no  in- 
stances have  the  united  cunning  and 
mendacity  of  the  Hawaiian  character 
been  more  strikingly  displayed  than  in 
their  stratagems  to  deceive  their  reli- 
gious teachers.  By  fraud,  by  even  giv- 
ing up  much  loved  sins,  and  by  ready 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  many  man- 
aged to  become  church  members,  because 
by  it  their  importance  was  increased, 
and  their  chances  of  political  preferment 
better.  This  is  too  Christian  a  practice 
for  civilized  men  to  wonder  at.  Deceived 
by  appearances,  the  friends  of  the  mis- 
sion exaggerated  their  success.  Now 


was  thought  the  opportunity  of  putting 
it  to  the  test. 

The  principles  of  the  king  had  become 
loosened,  and  he  longed  to  indulge  in 
the  forbidden  pleasures  of  his  race.  The 
moment  was  opportune ;  he  was  per- 
suaded, and  finally  gave  the  signal. 
Hoapili  hastened  to  Honolulu  to  endea- 
vor to  arrest  the  torrent,  and  persuade 
the  king  to  retire  with  him  to  Lahaina. 
But  he  had  gone  too  far  to  retract.  He 
immediately  issued  a  proclamation,  cen- 
tring in  himself  all  legal  authority,  the 
power  of  life  and  death,  and  taking  off 
all  penalties  of  the  laws,  excepting  those 
for  murder,  theft  and  adultery ;  the  lat- 
ter at  any  time  was  almost  a  dead  let- 
ter. Foreigners  were  to  be  protected  in 
their  persons  and  property.  The  conse- 
quences of  the  sweeping  away  of  moral 
restraint  and  municipal  regulations  in  a 
well-ordered  community,  can  be  imag- 
ined ;  how  far  worse  the  consequences 
among  a  dissolute  population,  ripe  for 
crime,  lust,  debauchery  and  revenge. 
The  scene  that  followed  beggars  de- 
scription. Some  remained  faithful  to 
their  instructions,  and  had  the  amount 
of  missionary  good  been  confined  to 
those  few,  their  labors  would  have  been 
amply  repaid.  The  worst  scenes  were 
enacted  at  Honolulu,  but  a  general  civil 
and  moral  anarchy  prevailed  through- 
out the  group.  Schools  were  deserted, 
teachers  relapsed,  congregations  were 
thinned,  excesses  abounded,  and  in  some 
places,  especially  in  the  district  of  Hilo, 
Hawaii,  idolatrous  worship  was  again 
performed.  Several  churches  were  burn- 
ed and  some  lives  lost.  Groggeries  were 
opened,  and  distilleries  set  in  motion. 
The  wild  orgies  of  heathenism  rioted 
over  the  land ;  men  left  their  wives, 
wives  their  husbands ;  parents,  brothers, 
sisters  and  relatives  united,  like  beasts, 
in  common  prostitution ;  they  gambled, 
they  fought,  for  old  grudges  were  then 
scored  off;  they  drank  and  they  reveled. 
Kinau,  surrounded  by  a  faithful  few, 
dared  not  venture  without  the  walls  of 
the  fort :  her  person  would  have  been  as 
common  as  the  lowest  female.  Kaiki- 
oewa,  and  some  of  the  old  warriors, 
wished,  by  force  of  arms,  to  compel  the 
king  to  put  a  stop  to  such  a  course ;  but 
more  peaceful  counsels  prevailed,  and  it 


BISTORY  Of  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


141 


was  thought  best  to  let  the  passions  of 
the  mass  exhaust  themselves.  The  king 
retired  to  the  west  part  of  Honolulu,  and 
there,  countenanced  by  Charlton,  who 
boasted  that  the  American  missionaries 
would  be  sent  off  on  the  arrival  of  the 
next  English  armed  vessel,  and  attended 
by  bottle  companions,  indulged  in  con- 
tinuous debauchery.  Several  times  was 
he  visited  by  Mr.  Bingham,  who  en- 
deavored to  reclaim  him  by  kindly  but 
forcible  monitions.  He  was  treated  with 
respect,  and  his  remonstrances  had  an 
effect  the  king  was  unwilling  to  ac- 
knowledge. The  princess,  though  al- 
most equally  giddy  and  volatile,  became 
alarmed,  and  was  incessant  in  affection- 
ate endeavors  to  reclaim  her  brother. 
Urged  by  pernicious  counsels,  he  had 
determined  to  remove  Kinau  from  the 
regency  and  substitute  Liliha.  The  par- 
tisans of  the  latter  assembled  round  him, 
and  were  clamorous  for  the  event.  It 
was  to  have  been  done  publicly ;  the 
chiefs  were  present ;  the  revocation  was 
on  his  lips,  when  he  unexpectedly  turned 
to  Kinau  and  solemnly  confirmed  her  in 
office.  The  effect  was  electric  ;  all  per- 
ceived the  days  of  misrule  were  num- 
bered. When  expostulated  with  for  not 
carrying  out  his  intention,  he  gave  the 
significant  reply,  "  very  strong  is  the 
kingdom  of  God." 

In  their  relation  of  this  reaction,  the 
Roman  Catholics,  though  they  appear  to 
rejoice  in  its  effects  so  far  as  it  was  in- 
jurious to  Protestantism,  yet  are  obliged 
to  confess,  that  even  among  their  con- 
verts, the  "  piety  of  some  appeared  to 
grow  cold." 

For  awhile  the  king  wavered  between 
two  courses ;  sometimes  dissolute,  at 
others  respectful  and  attending  divine 
worship.  Multitudes,  wearied  by  their 
excesses,  or  disgusted  with  scenes  which 
had  long  been  given  over,  returned  to 
their  teachers,  and  confessed  they  had 
had  enough;  they  were  satisfied  that  law 
and  order  were  better;  the  experiment 
of  unrestrained  license  had  been  tried, 
and  demonstrated  as  vicious.  The  con- 
trast between  such  times,  when  neither 
life  nor  property  were  safe ;  when  sen- 
suality became  palsied  with  excess ; 
when  revenge  rioted  unchecked,  and 
gambling  begat  insatiable  desires ;  and 


the  peaceful  systems  of  education,  com- 
mercial pursuits  and  united  households, 
was  made  so  apparent  to  the  advantage 
of  the  latter,  that  it  would  have  been 
found  difficult  to  have  again  renewed 
the  former.  It  was  the  final  effort  of  the 
disorganizers  to  bring  about  a  revolu- 
tion ;  and  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  some 
among  their  ranks  shrunk  in  affright 
from  the  foul  phantom  they  had  con- 
jured up.  Its  effects  were  long  felt, 
especially  by  individuals  ;  families  were 
forever  separated;  healths  ruined;  limbs 
bruised  or  broken ;  and  much  property 
squandered  or  destroyed.  No  foreigner 
suffered,  except  in  the  interruption  of 
business  and  anxiety  for  the  results. 

In  1S34,  the  reaction  of  the  previous 
year  began  to  be  conspicuous.  The  king 
gave  sanction  to  the  laws,  and  the  traffic 
in  ardent  spirits  was  mostly  suppressed, 
except  at  Oahu.  Efficient  aid  to  the 
cause  of  temperance  was  afforded  by 
shipmasters,  who  had  long  experienced 
evils  from  the  use  of  ardent  spirits  among 
their  crews,  and  were  anxious  to  see  its 
sale  altogether  discontinued.  At  Hono- 
lulu it  was  finally  put  under  certain  re- 
strictions, which,  while  they  prevented 
much  of  the  former  disorder,  gave  the 
king  an  annual  revenue  from  the  licenses 
issued  for  the  privilege  of  retailing. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

1836 — Political  position  of  the  Chiefs  and  Mission — Mr. 
Richards'  agency  to  the  United  States — Employment 
of  foreigners — Further  history  of  the  Jesuits — Arrival 
of  the  French  sloop-of-war  Bonite— H.  B.  M.  S.  Al- 
teon— Lord  Edward  Russell — Diplomatic  intercourse — 
Treaties— Return  of  priests  from  California,  1837— Or- 
dered on  board  the  Clementine — Abandoned  to  govern- 
ment— Burning  of  the  flag  by  English  consul — Armed 
interference  of  Captains  Belcher,  of  the  Sulphur,  and 
Du  Petit  Thouars,  of  the  Venus  frigate — Account  of 
official  intercourse  —  Treaty  negotiated  — Arrival  of 
Imogene  frigate— Another  arrival  of  priests — Sent  away 
—Edict  against  Romanism— Further  persecution— Re- 
ligious toleration  proclaimed  by  the  king,  17th  June, 
1839 — Proceeding  of  foreign  residents  at  Honolulu — 
Admixture  of  religious  and  political  movements  of  the 
French  in  the  Pacific — Policy — Arrival  of  L'Artemise 
frigate,  Laplace  commander— Blockade  of  the  port  of 
Honolulu — Manifesto — Demands — Agreed  to — History 
of  commercial  treaty — Interview  with  king — Arrival  of 
French  bishop— Fresh  difficulties  incited,  1842— Visit 
and  demands  of  the  corvette  L'Embuscade,  Captaia 
Mallet,  September. 

A  NEW  era  was  now  dawning.  The 
missionaries  had  carried  forward  the  na- 
tion to  a  certain  point,  when  it  became 
necessary  for  new  influences  to  operate, 
that  their  work  of  civilizing  as  well  as 


142 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


evangelizing  might  be  completed.  The 
religious  movement  in  one  sense  had 
fulfilled  its  task.  Sixteen  years  had 
elapsed  since  the  idols  were  overthrown. 
In  that  time,  Christianity  had  made  rapid 
progress,  until  the  entire  nation  owned 
its  sway.  Pulpits,  schools  and  mission 
stations  were  scattered  over  the  land. 
Idolatry,  infanticide,  licentiousness,  in- 
toxication, murder,  the  worst  features  of 
heathenism,  which,  by  its  standard,  half 
partook  of  the  character  of  virtues,  had 
been  successively  vanquished.  The 
strenuous  opposition  to  the  progress  of 
the  Gospel  was  gradually  changing  its 
character,  and  settling  into  a  political 
animosity  to  the  chiefs.  Laws,  people 
and  government  partook  of  the  puritan- 
ical caste  of  their  religious  teachers. 
Without  exaggeration,  the  nation  may 
now  be  said  to  have  been  Christianized ; 
that  is,  their  faith  was  fixed  in  Jehovah, 
and  the  principles  of  the  revealed  Gos- 
pel were  their  professed  guide.  To 
advance  further,  the  religious  reforma- 
tion must  operate  on  individuals,  by  re- 
generating their  lives  and  implanting 
pure  motives  of  action.  Vice  must  now 
be  attacked  in  detail  rather  than  in  the 
mass.  The  public  sentiment,  however 
unsound  at  heart,  had  adopted  the  stand- 
ard of  the  cross.  The  impression  made 
upon  the  world  by  this  religious  conquest 
was  great.  Christendom  resounded  with 
the  triumph.  It  recalled  the  days  of  the 
primitive  bishops,  when  Papal  Eome  in 
the  infancy  of  her  power  sent  forth  her 
heralds  throughout  heathen  Europe,  and 
nations  were  born  to  her  sway  as  in  a 
day.  This  was  the  work  of  Protestant- 
ism in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  its 
example  has  been  the  most  active  stim- 
ulant to  modern  missions.  But  while  it 
had  done  so  much  for  Hawaiians,  it  had 
left  undone  much  equally  as  essential 
for  their  preservation  as  a  nation.  It 
had  carried  them  to  a  certain  height  and 
bade  them  spread  their  wings  and  soar 
aloft.  It  was  too  soon.  Christianity  it 
is  true  had  spread  its  healing  balm  over 
limbs  lacerated  with  sin,  and  as  with  the 
touch  of  its  author,  the  sick  had  risen 
and  walked.  But  new  evils  had  sprung 
up — new  relations  were  now  to  be  pro- 
vided for — and  new  foes  to  be  fought. 
Much  as  the  Hawaiians  had  acquired  in 


the  art  of  self-government,  they  were  ig- 
norant of  political  government  consider- 
ed in  its  foreign  relations.  Exposed  as 
they  were  to  the  machinations  of  malcon- 
tent foreigners  exciting  treason  among 
subjects — becoming  more  known  yearly 
to  the  civilized  world  and  incurring  the 
responsibilities  incident  to  national  ex- 
istence,— aiming  at  carrying  out  to  an 
advanced  civilization  the  experiment 
which  Christianity  had  commenced,  and 
desirous  of  appearing  among  the  family 
of  nations,  it  became  requisite  that  they 
should  lay  the  foundations  of  their  new 
polity  on  sure  and  enlightened  grounds. 
Ignorant  themselves,  they  were  obliged 
to  look  to  others  for  knowledge.  Versed 
in  theology,  with  sacred  history  on  their 
tongues'  ends,  they  were  as  yet  unac- 
quainted with  the  practical  science  of  in- 
ternational government  and  the  axioms 
of  political  economy.  Who  should  in- 
struct them  ?  The  missionaries  were 
debarred  by  their  patrons  in  the  United 
States  from  incurring  the  charge  of  mov- 
ing in  political  matters — from  following 
the  example  of  the  Jesuits  and  creating 
at  once  a  church  and  state.  This  was  a 
good  rule  so  far  as  the  clergymen  were 
concerned,  for  excellence  in  religious 
polemics  or  single-heartedness  in  faith, 
by  no  means  argued  skill  in  the  manage- 
ment of  a  state,  or  a  practical  knowledge 
of  men.  But  having  been  instrumental 
in  bringing  the  nation  to  a  position 
where  a  new  order  of  talents  was  as 
necessary  for  it  to  advance  in  its  career 
as  that  of  the  past  had  been  to  save  it 
from  destruction  by  its  own  weight  of 
vices,  it  was  due  it  to  provide  the  neces- 
sary pilots  for  the  new  sea  on  which  it 
had  been  launched.  Koman  Catholicism 
never  hesitates,  when  opportunity  offers, 
to  merge  the  church  and  state  into  one 
power;  but  she  provides  agents  skilled 
for  the  work.  Not  so  modern  Protest- 
antism. Its  policy  has  been  to  convert ; 
to  make  spiritual  conquests,  and  leave 
the  state  to  its  own  resources.  This  is 
right  where  talent  and  knowledge  exist. 
But  where  the  entire  overthrowing  of 
the  past  is  necessary  for  the  welfare  of 
the  future,  it  is  indispensable  that  in- 
struction and  influence  should  be  felt 
throughout,  if  the  work  is  to  be  com- 
pleted. In  1836,  the  chiefs  were  as 


HISTORY  OF  THE  BAWAIIAS  ISLASDS. 


143 


much  children  in  the  science  of  gov- 
ernment, as  understood  among  civilized 
states,  as  in  1820,  they  were  blind  to  the 
morality  of  the  sermon  on  the  mount. 
Troubles  were  thickening  around  them. 
They  turned  instinctively  to  the  mission- 
aries for  advice.  This  was  rather  im- 
plied than  given ;  no  one  could  be  found 
in  the  face  of  the  principles  professed 
sufficiently  bold  or  confident  in  his  own 
ability  to  meet  the  emergency,  and  pro- 
claim himself  at  once  the  steward  of 
souls  and  the  adviser  of  the  state.  Had 
such  an  one  appeared,  if  his  talents  and 
experience  had  been  equal  to  the  case, 
however  great  the  outcry  which  would 
have  followed  from  those  interested  in 
continuing  the  chiefs  in  darkness  and 
from  those  who  saw  evils  in  such  a 
junction,  it  cannot  now  be  doubted  but 
that  great  and  serious  evils  would  have 
been  saved  the  nation.  But  an  Ximenes 
or  a  Cromwell  did  not  exist  on  Hawaii. 
Providence  destined  the  nation  to  run 
its  career  through  feebler  agencies. 

The  chiefs,  fully  sensible  of  their  po- 
litical wants,  sent  by  Mr.  .Richards,  in 
1836,  to  the  United  States  to  procure  a 
suitable  person  to  fill  the  situation  of 
legal  adviser  and  teacher  in  the  new 
policy  circumstances  were  forcing  upon 
them.  In  this  they  were  backed  by  the 
opinion  of  the  mission,  who  desirous  of 
preserving  themselves  from  the  responsi- 
bility, would  gladly  have  seen  it  in  able 
and  disinterested  hands.  The  wants  of 
the  chiefs  were  fully  appreciated  by  the 
American  Board,  but  nothing  was  effect- 
ed. Individuals  of  talent,  by  the  time 
they  have  acquired  the  experience  suit- 
able for  such  a  post,  which  in  its  real  ef- 
fect, would  have  been  equivalent  to  the 
supreme  direction  of  public  affairs,  gen- 
erally have  fixed  themselves  in  perma- 
nent relations  at  home.  With  all  the 
modern  fervor  in  the  cause  of  missions, 
and  the  very  many  excellent  discourses 
yearly  uttered  from  pulpits,  we  rarely 
see  entire  disinterestedness  manifested 
in  the  middle-aged — those  who  have 
known  the  world  and  tasted  its  goods, 
however  prepared  they  may  be  by  these 
yery  qualifications  for  the  posts  they  so 
industriously  urge  upon  others.  The 
path  of  novelty,  sacrifice,  enterprise  and 
benevolence  is  rarely  filled  by  any  ex- 


cept the  young  and  enthusiastic.  That 
the  chiefs  relying  on  the  philanthropy 
of  any  experienced  public  man  to  have 
complied  with  their  request  should  have 
failed,  is  what  might  reasonably  have 
been  anticipated.  A  young  man,  ambi- 
tious of  the  influence  if  not  of  the  actual 
power  of  a  Peter  the  Great  or  an  Alfred, 
on  a  petty  scale,  might  readily  have  been 
found,  but  the  chiefs  were  suspicious  of 
youth.  Desiring  age  and  experience, 
they  should  have  offered  a  salary  equiv- 
alent to  some  of  the  highest  posts  in  the 
United  States.  On  such  a  contingency 
few  objections  would  have  been  found 
unanswerable.  The  path  of  duty  would 
have  been  opened  to  many  blind  to  all 
other  considerations.  This  is  human 
nature  as  we  see  it  in  the  pulpit  and  on 
the  bench.  In  every  position  it  requires 
its  motive  power. 

It  is  said  that  the  Honorable  Theo.  L. 
Frelinghuysen  was  invited  to  become 
the  adviser  of  the  chiefs,  but  declined. 
At  all  events  Mr.  Richards  was  wholly 
unsuccessful.  On  his  return,  the  posi- 
tion of  the  chiefs  being  none  the  less 
embarrassing,  compelled  them  to  apply 
to  the  mission  for  aid.  Without  any 
definite  action  of  their  body,  then  com- 
menced that  system  which  by  the  natural 
course  of  events  has  led  to  the  direct 
employment  of  several  of  their  number — 
having  first  been  disconnected  from  their 
ranks — in  the  service  of  the  government. 
Foreigners  were  required  in  public  af- 
fairs. The  chiefs  chose  those  on  whom 
they  could  most  rely;  and  whatever  may 
have  been  their  errors  of  judgment,  the 
result  has  shown  that  they  were  not  mis- 
taken in  relying  upon  their  zeal  and 
fidelity ;  and  it  may  well  be  doubted 
whether,  at  that  time,  the  kingdom  fur- 
nished men  more  suitable  from  knowl- 
edge and  experience  with  the  people  and 
foreigners,  to  administer  to  its  wants. 
The  history  of  the  policy  they  adopted 
will  be  traced  to  the  period  of  its  pres- 
ent development. 

The  mission  and  their  seceders  were 
united  in  their  views  to  build  up  a  nation 
of  Hawaiians  distinct  from  all  foreign 
influence.  The  following  resolutions, 
taken  from  the  missionary  minutes  for 
1838,  show  the  just  views  entertained 
at  this  date  : 


144 


HISTOSY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS.          ~~ 


"  1st.  Resolved,  That  though  the  system  of  govern- 
ment in  the  Sandwich  Islands  has,  since  the  commence- 
ment of  the  reign  of  Liholiho,  been  greatly  improved 
through  the  influence  of  Christianity  and  the  introduc- 
tion of  written  and  printed  laws  and  (he  salutary  agency 
of  Christian  chiefs,  has  proved  a  great  blessing  to  the 
people  ;  stiil,  the  system  is  so  very  imperfect  for  the  man- 
agement of  the  affairs  of  a  civilized  and  virtuous  nation, 
as  to  render  it  of  great  importance  that  correct  views  of 
the  rights  and  duties  of  rulers  and  subjects,  and  of  the 
principles  of  jurisprudence  and  political  economy,  should 
be  held  up  before  the  king  and  the  members  of  the  na- 
tional council. 

2d.  Resolved,  That  it  is  the  duty  of  missionaries  to 
teach  the  doctrine  that  rulers  should  be  just,  ruling  in  the 
fear  of  God,  seeking  the  best  good  of  their  nation,  demand- 
ing no  more  of  subjects  as  such,  than  the  various  ends  of 
the  government  may  justly  require  ;  and  if  church  mem- 
bers among  them  violate  the  commands  of  God,  they 
should  he  admonished  with  the  same  faithfulness  and 
tenderness  as  their  dependants. 

3d.  Resolved,  That  rulers  in  power  are  so  by  the 
providence  of  God,  and  in  an  important  sense  by  the 
will  or  consent  of  the  people,  and  ought  not  to  resign 
«r  shrink  from  the  cares  and  responsibilities  of  their  of- 
fices ;  therefore  teachers  of  religion  ought  carefully  to 
guard  the  subjects  against  contempt  for  the  authority 
«f  their  rulers,  or  any  evasion  or  resistance  of  govern- 
ment orders,  unless  they  plainly  set  at  defiance  the  com- 
mands of  God. 

4th.  Resolved,  That  the  resources  of  the  nation  are 
at  its  own  disposal  for  its  defence,  improvement  and  per- 
fection, and  subjects  ought  to  be  taught  to  feel  that  a  por- 
tion of  their  time  and  services,  their  property  or  earnings, 
may  rightfully  be  required  by  the  sovereign  or  national 
council  for  the  support  of  government,  in  all  its  branches 
and  departments,  and  that  it  is  a  Christian  duty  to  render 
honor,  obedience,  fear,  custom  and  tribute  to  whom  they 
are  due,  as  taught  in  the  13th  of  Romans,  and  that  the 
sin  of  disloyalty  which  tends  to  confusion,  anarchy  and 
ruin,  deserves  reproof  as  really  and  as  promptly  as  that 
of  injustice  on  the  part  of  rulers  or  any  other  violation  of 
the  commands  of  God. 

5th.  Resolved,  That  while  rulers  should  be  allowed 
to  do  what  they  will  with  their  own,  or  with  what  they 
have  a  right  to  demand,  we  ought  to  encourage  the  secu- 
rity of  the  right  of  subjects  also  to  do  what  they  will  with 
their  own,  provided  they  render  to  Caesar  his  due. 

6th.  Resolved,  That  rulers  ought  to  be  prompted  to 
direct  their  efforts  to  the  promotion  of  general  intelli- 
gence and  virtue  as  a  grand  means  of  removing  the  ex- 
isting evils  of  the  system,  gradually  defining  and  limiting 
by  equitable  laws  the  rights  and  duties  of  all  classes,  that 
thus  by  improving  rather  than  revolutionizing  the  gov- 
ernment, its  administration  may  become  abundantly  salu- 
tary, and  the  hereditary  rulers  receive  no  detriment  but 
corresponding  advantage. 

7th.  Resolved,  That  to  remove  the  improvidence  and 
imbecility  of  the  people,  and  promote  the  industry,  wealth 
and  happiness  of  the  nation,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  mission 
to  urge  mainly  the  motives  to  loyalty,  patriotism,  social 
kindness  and  general  benevolence  ;  but  while  on  the  one 
hand  he  should  not  condemn  their  artificial  wants,  an- 
eient  or  modern,  because  they  depend  on  fancy,  or  a  taste 
aot  refined,  he  should  on  the  other  endeavor  to  encourage 
and  multiply  such  as  will  enlist  their  energies,  call  forth 
ingenuity,  enterprise  and  patient  industry,  and  give  scope 
for  enlarged  plans  of  profitable  exertion,  which,  if  well 
directed,  would  clothe  the  population  in  beautiful  cot- 
tons, fine  linen  and  silk,  and  their  arable  fields  with  rich 
and  various  productions  suited  to  the  climate  5  would 
adorn  the  land  with  numerous  comfortable,  substantial 
habitations,  made  pleasant  by  elegant  furniture,  cabinets 
and  libraries  •,  with  permanent  and  well  endowed  school 
houses  and  seminaries  ;  large,  commodious  and  durable 
churches,  and  their  seas  and  harbors  with  ships  owned 
by  natives,  sufficient  to  export  to  other  countres  annu- 
ally the  surplus  products  of  their  soil,  which  may  at  no 
rery  distant  period  amount  to  millions. 

8th.  Resolved,  That  we  deem  it  proper  for  mem- 
bers of  this  mission  to  devote  a  portion  of  their  time  to 
instructing  the  natives  into  the  best  method  of  cultivat- 
ing their  lands,  and  of  raising  flocks  and  herds,  and  of 
turning  the  various  products  of  the  country  to  the  best 
advantage,  for  the  maintenance  of  their  families,  the 
support  of  government  and  of  schools,  and  the  insti- 
tutions of  the  Gospel  and  its  ministers,  at  Lome  and 
abroad." 


Notwithstanding  the  banishment  of 
the  Jesuits,  and  the  entire  suppression 
of  their  partisans,  as  a  political  party,  a 
powerful  influence  was  at  work  to  re- 
call them.  The  mechanics  left  behind, 
acted  as  catechists  and  served  to  keep 
alive  the  embers  of  the  faith  among  the 
few  native  converts.  Charlton,  still  ac- 
tive in  the  cause,  corresponded  with  the 
exiles.  In  1835,  the  Pope  sent  them  a 
brief,  exhorting  them  to  persevere  in 
the  attempt  at  Oahu.  The  party  was 
strengthened  by  the  arrival  of  a  Mr. 
Robert  Walsh,  an  Irish  priest,  educated 
at  Paris.  He  landed  at  Honolulu  the 
30th  of  September,  1S36.  As  soon  as 
his  clerical  character  was  known,  he 
was  required  to  leave,  but  obtained  per- 
mission to  remain  until  the  arrival  of 
H.  B.  M.  ship  Acteon,  Lord  Edward 
Russell,  commander,  who  was  daily  ex- 
pected. On  the  7th  of  October,  Mr. 
Walsh  was  officially  informed  that  he 
would  not  be  allowed  to  remain  perma- 
nently. The  day  succeeding,  the  French 
sloop-of-war  Bonite,  Captain  Vaillant, 
arrived;  and  he  was  immediately  waited 
upon  to  engage  his  influence  in  his  fa- 
vor. Seconded  by  the  assertions  of  the 
English  consul,  who  claimed  the  priv- 
ilege of  his  being  allowed  to  remain  re- 
gardless of  his  profession,  M.  Vaillant 
procured  permission  for  him,  with  the 
proviso  that  he  should  make  no  attempts 
to  propagate  his  religion.  This,  Mr. 
Walsh  confesses  in  his  correspondence 
with  his  employers,  he  violated  when- 
ever it  could  be  safely  done.  The  Ac- 
teon arrived  on  the  23d,  and  the  Bonite 
sailed  the  ensuing  day.  Captain  Rus- 
sell, prejudiced  by  the  ex  parte  state- 
ments of  the  English  consul,  actively 
interfered  in  behalf  of  the  Romish 
priests.  Captain  Jones,  of  the  Peacock, 
in  1826,  had  first  set  the  example  of 
negotiating  a  treaty  with  the  Hawaiian 
government,  in  which  the  rights  of  the 
subjects  of  both  countries  were  generally 
defined.  Defective  as  it  was  in  some 
important  points,  it  had  been  of  eminent 
utility ;  though  individual  instances  had 
occurred  in  which  it  had  been  held  up  to 
the  native  government  as  a  bugbear,  by 
which  advantages  or  selfish  interests, 
not  contemplated  in  its  spirit,  might  be 
secured.  Violations  of  treaties,  break- 


fttSTORT  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


145 


ing  the  laws  of  nations,  visits  of  aveng- 
ing  men-of-war,  had  been  so  often  ut- 
tered, that  they  had  lost  their  meaning; 
and  it  would  not  have  been  surprising 
if,  in  the  constant  efforts  to  entangle 
them,  the  native  authorities  should  have 
given  some  occasion  of  complaint.  The 
discussions  which  had  arisen  from  time 
to  time,  on  account  of  alleged  griev- 
ances, particularly  when  Commodore 
Kennedy,  of  the  United  States  East 
India  squadron,  was  present,  in  1836, 
had  gradually  enlarged  their  ideas  of  a 
national  polity,  and  given  them  a  better 
understanding  of  the  laws  of  nations, 
though  their  knowledge  was  of  an  extent 
calculated  to  render  them  more  timid 
than  bold,  or  perhaps  wavering  in  action 
though  firm  in  policy.  Those  com- 
manders who  have  acted  with  justice 
and  moderation,  and  by  impartial  de- 
cisions gained  the  good  will  of  the  high 
minded  of  the  foreigners,  as  well  as  that 
of  the  natives,  have  invariably  been  fol- 
lowed by  the  sneers  and  abuse  of  those 
who  had  sought  their  aid  to  prosecute 
unjust  claims,  or  had  endeavored  to  in- 
fuse their  partial  views  into  their  minds. 
In  Captain  Russell,  that  party  found  a 
man  accessible  to  their  views.  It  was 
thought  a  favorable  opportunity  to  se- 
cure a  treaty,  in  which  the  most  favor- 
able terms  should  be  inserted.  The 
attempt  was  made  ;  a  definite  period  for 
its  signature  was  insisted  upon ;  and  at 
the  end  of  that  time,  if  it  were  not  re- 
ceived, the  frigate  was  to  coerce  them 
by  her  guns.  Whatever  influence  these 
threats  may  have  had,  the  document 
which  was  finally  signed,  fully  confirmed 
the  government  in  all  their  legal  rights, 
while  it  placed  upon  a  firmer  basis 
usages  of  English  subjects  which  had 
heretofore  been  only  tacitly  admitted. 
It  is  probable  that  neither  Lord  Russell 
nor  the  consul  dared  risk  the  displeasure 
of  their  government  by  any  act  which, 
in  its  official  bearing,  should  manifest 
gross  injustice.  The  point  on  which  the 
Hawaiian  government  would  yield  the 
least,  was  that  on  which  the  principle  of 
their  internal  polity  was  based, — the 
unalienable  tenure  of  the  soil.  Foreign 
wealth  and  property  had  greatly  in- 
creased ;  much  of  it  was  in  houses  or 
farms,  occupying  lands  which  had  been 
19 


the  gifts  of  friendship  from  various 
chiefs,  or  the  reward  of  services.  In  all 
such  cases  they  argued  that  they  were 
held  on  the  same  principle  as  those  of 
their  own  subjects  ;  and  were  incapa- 
ble of  transmission.  The  "Indian  gift" 
was  but  for  the  occupancy  or  lifetime  of 
the  possessor  or  the  will  of  the  donor. 
Disputes  had  arisen  in  consequence, 
and  innovations  constantly  occurred,  by 
which  some  lands  came  to  be  held  in 
perpetuity  by  foreigners,  while  all  wish- 
ed to  obtain  a  like  concession.  Houses 
had  been  demolished  and  removed  upon 
the  departure  of  the  occupants,  and  the 
lands  reverted  to  the  chiefs.  A  few 
leases  had  been  obtained,  but  no  rep- 
resentative value  received ;  foreigners 
\vere  desirous  of  obtaining  tracts  suit- 
able for  extended  agricultural  enter- 
prises. The  importance  of  developing 
the  resources  of  the  soil  was  fully  ac- 
knowledged by  the  chiefs,  but  the  fear 
of  losing  their  legal  control,  by  yielding 
the  right  of  cultivation,  was  a  stronger 
motive.  It  was  a  subject  which  had 
been  already  a  source  of  much  vexation, 
and  at  this  time  their  ideas  were  not 
sufficiently  enlightened  to  enable  them 
to  comprehend  the  distinction  between 
deeding  the  right  of  soil,  and  retaining 
the  sovereignty.  Consequently,  Lord 
Russell  was  only  able  to  obtain  the  rec- 
ognition of  the  privilege  to  sell  or  trans- 
fer, with  the  consent  of  the  king.  The 
important  clause  was  also  formally  in- 
serted, that  English  subjects  should  be 
permitted  to  reside  on  the  islands  only 
so  long  as  they  conformed  to  the  laws. 

Notwithstanding  this  provision,  which 
was  agreed  to  in  full  knowledge  of  the 
edict  against  Romanism,  Walsh,  sup- 
ported by  the  consul,  although  detected 
in  violating  his  agreement,  refused  to 
leave.  He  was  forbidden  to  open  the 
chapel.  Information  had  been  sent  the 
priests  at  California  that  the  moment 
for  them  to  return  was  opportune  ;  that 
the  king  had  pledged  himself  to  Captain 
Vaillant  to  protect  them,  and  that  the 
treaty  made  by  Lord  Russell  would  ef- 
fectually cover  the  landing  of  Short.  It 
appears  they  doubted  of  their  success ; 
for  it  was  agreed  that  Short  should  land 
secretly,  and  after  continuing  for  some 
time  in  concealment,  claim  the  right 


146 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


of  stopping  under  the  provision  of  the 
treaty  which  allowed  English  subjects 
freely  to  land  and  remain,  but  contain- 
ed, in  the  same  paragraph,  the  sentence, 
"  with  the  consent  of  the  king,"  which 
the  English  consul  in  all  cases  studi- 
ously disguised.  Bachelot  was  to  at- 
tempt to  land  openly ;  if  prevented,  to 
hold  intercourse  with  the  natives  from 
the  vessels  in  the  harbor,  and  if  unable  to 
effect  this,  to  leave  for  the  South  Pacific. 

They  arrived  at  Honolulu  on  the  17th 
of  April,  1837,  in  the  brigantine  Clem- 
entine, faring  English  colors,  though 
the  property  of  Jules  Dudoit,  a  French- 
man. She  had  been  chartered  by  an 
American  for  the  voyage  to  Califor- 
nia. Upon  their  landing  much  excite- 
ment prevailed.  Kekuanaoa,  governor 
of  Oahu,  ordered  the  captain  of  the 
brig  to  receive  them  on  board.  He  re- 
fused, saying  he  had  no  control  over  the 
vessel.  The  owner  was  next  applied 
to;  he  declined  to  receive  them,  except 
by  their  own  desire ;  in  case  they  were 
forced  on  board,  he  said  that  he  should 
abandon  his  vessel  and  look  to  his  gov- 
ernment for  redress.  He  also  stated 
that  as  the  brigantine  was  chartered,  he 
exercised  no  control  over  her  move- 
ments. An  order  was  sent  the  priests 
on  the  19th  to  prepare  to  depart.*  The 
king  was  absent  at  Maui,  where  he  and 
Kinau  had  recently  gone  to  deposit  the 
remains  of  his  sister,  who  died  Decem- 
ber 31,  1836,  to  the  great  grief  of  the 
nation.  She  was  equally  beloved  by 
foreigners  and  subjects,  to  all  of  \vhom 
she  had  endeared  herself  by  her  sweet- 
ness of  disposition.  Leleiohoku,  the  son 
and  heir  of  Kalaimoku,  was  her  hus- 
band. One  child  had  resulted  from 
their  union,  which,  if  it  had  lived,  would 
have  been  heir  to  the  throne. 

His  majesty  received  a  despatch  from 
Kekuanaoa  on  the  26th,  informing  him 
of  the  recent  events.  The  decision  of 


*  HONOLULU,  OAHTT,  April  19,  1837. 
This  is  what  I  have  to  say  to  the  Frenchmen  .- 

This  is  my  opinion  to  both  of  you,  who  were  sent 
away  before  from  these  islands,  that  you  are  forhidden 
by  our  chiefs  to  come  here ;  this  is  the  reason  I  asked 
you  if  you  intended  to  live  here.  The  answer  you  made 
was  "no;  we  intend  to  stop  here  for  a  few  days  until 
we  can  obtain  a  vessel  to  carry  us  from  here."  I  re- 
plied, "when  you  get  a  vessel  go  quickly."  This  is 
what  I  say  to  both  of  you,  from  this  time  prepare 
yourselves  to  depart  in  the  same  vessel  in  which  you 
arrived ;  when  the  vessel  is  ready,  both  of  you  are  to 
go  without  delay.  M.  KEKUANAQA. 


the  governor  was  confirmed,  and  on  the 
29th,  a  proclamation  issued,  declaring 
the  perpetual  banishment  of  the  priests.* 
They  were  required  to  return  to  the 
Clementine,  and  Kinau  arrived  at  Hono- 
lulu to  enforce  the  edict.  The  priests 
resolutely  refused  to  go.  The  Clemen- 
tine had  been  made  ready  for  another 
voyage.  It  was  resolved  to  put  the 
priests  on  board,  and  compel  them  to 
depart  in  her.  Officers  were  deputed  to 
see  them  off;  on  the  20th  of  May,  two 
days  before  the  appointed  time  of  sail- 
ing, they  waited  upon  them  with  the  or- 
ders of  government.  Bachelot  inquired 
if  force  would  be  used ;  they  replied 
that  they  were  to  be  compelled,  if  any 
resistance  was  experienced.  The  priests 
then  drew  up  formal  protests  against 
the  violence  before  the  English  consul, 
who  had  been  active  in  urging  them  to 
this  opposition.  Endeavoring  to  excite 
the  passions  of  the  constables  appointed 
to  conduct  them  on  board,  to  some  act 
which  should  appear  like  outrage  and 
implicate  their  rulers,  he  told  them  the 
vessel  was  taboo,  and  that  any  one  who 
approached  her  would  be  shot ;  adding 
"come  on,  come  on!  you  are  cowards."! 
Several  hours  were  consumed  in  prepa- 
ration, and  at  three  o'clock,  P.  M.,  the 
police  informed  the  priests  it  was  time 
to  leave.  They  were  conducted  to  the 
wharf.  The  priests,  before  stepping 
into  the  boat,  induced  the  officer  in 
charge  to  touch  them,  that  the  appear- 
ance of  force  might  be  made  more  ap- 
parent. Arriving  at  the  Clementine, 
they  were  ordered  off  by  the  mate  in 
charge.  M.  Dudoit  then  hurried  on 
board,  and  the  boat  arriving  the  second 


*  PROCLAMATION. — Ye  strangers  all  from  foreign 
lands  who  are  in  my  dominions,  both  residents  and 
those  recently  arrived,  I  make  known  my  word  to  you 
all,  that  you  may  understand  my  orders. 

The  men  of  France  whom  Kaahurnanu  banished, 
are  under  the  same  unaltered  oi-der  up  to  this  period. 
The  rejection  of  these  men  is  perpetual,  confirmed  by 
me  at  the  present  time.  1  will  not  assent  to  their  re- 
maining in  my  dominions. 

These  are  my  orders  to  them,  that  they  go  back 
immediately  on  board  the  vessel  on  which  they  have 
come ;  that  they  stay  on  board  her  till  that  vessel  on 
board  which  they  came  sails ;  that  is  to  me  clearly 
right,  but  their  abiding  here  I  do  not  wish. 

I  have  no  desire  that  the  service  of  the  missionaries 
who  follow  the  Pope  should  be  performed  iu  my  king- 
dom, not  at  all. 

Wherefore,  all  who  shall  be  encouraging  the  Papal 
missionaries,  I  shall  regard  as  enemies  to  me,  to  my 
counselors,  to  my  chiefs,  to  my  people,  and  to  my  king- 
dom. (Signed,)  KA31EIIAMEHA  III. 

t  Tracy's  History,  p.  253. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


147 


time,  thinking  that  sufficient  opposition 
had  been  shown,  hauled  down  his  flag, 
and  permitted  the  embarkation  of  the 
priests.  He  ordered  the  crew  ashore, 
and  carried  the  flag  to  Charlton,  who, 
as  a  finale  to  this  preconcerted  farce  of 
ineffectual  resistance  to  the  tyranny  of 
the  chiefs,  publicly  burned  it,  for  fear, 
as  he  stated,  the  natives  should  tear  it 
to  pieces,  of  which  there  was  not  the 
slightest  intimation.  M.  Dudoit  then 
made  a  protest,  stating  that  the  Clem- 
entine had  been  forcibly  seized  by  the 
Hawaiian  government,  claiming  heavy 
damages.  They  had  now  secured  the 
consummation  so  devoutly  wished  for, 
and  so  cunningly  devised.  With  right 
and  justice  on  their  side,  the  chiefs  had 
impolitically  allowed  themselves  to  be 
ensnared  ;  not  that  any  act  of  which 
they  had  been  guilty  was  a  violation  of 
the  rights  of  others,  for  it  was  but  a 
lawful  enforcement  of  the  supremacy  of 
their  own ;  but  knowing  the  duplicity  of 
those  they  had  to  deal  with  and  their 
own  weakness,  it  would  have  been  bet- 
ter to  have  submitted  for  a  while  to 
their  machinations,  and  appealed  for  jus- 
tice to  the  good  sense  of  their  respective 
governments. 

Three  powers  were  now  interested — 
the  French,  English  and  American  ;  for 
the  property  on  board  belonged  to  a 
citizen  of  the  United  States,  who  was 
anxious  to  secure  an  award  sufficient  to 
make  a  good  sale  of  it.  A  great  flourish 
was  made  by  the  consuls  of  the  ready 
action  of  their  governments,  and  the 
prompt  vengeance  which  would  ensue. 
A  weekly  paper,*  which  had  been  estab- 
lished the  year  before,  under  their  con- 
trol, from  that  period  became  an  organ 
of  virulent  abuse  of  the  government, 
missionaries,  and  their  patrons,  and 
strongly  supported  the  measures  of  the 
priests.  By  its  misstatements  numbers 
of  benevolent  individuals  abroad  were 
led  to  suppose  that  a  furious  persecution 
of  the  Romanists  existed,  and  that  the 
government  set  at  defiance  all  interna- 
tional law.  Hence  their  sympathies 
were  unintentionally  enlisted  against  a 
much  wronged  people. 

On  the  7th  of  July  the  English  sur- 
veying sloop  Sulphur,  Captain  Belcher, 


*  Sandwich  Islands  Gazette. 


arrived.  Influenced  altogether  by  the 
English  consul,  the  captain  demanded 
the  release  of  Mr.  Short,  and  threat- 
ened, in  case  of  refusal,  to  land  him  by 
force.  Kinau  urged  him  to  investigate 
the  matter,  but  he  declared  that  he  was 
obliged  "  to  follow  the  statements  of  the 
consul."  On  the  10th,  the  French  frig- 
ate Venus,  commanded  by  Du  Petit 
Thouars,  anchored  off  the  port.  He 
united  with  Belcher  in  a  demand  for  the 
instant  liberation  of  the  priests.  This 
not  being  obtained,  a  body  of  marines 
from  the  Sulphur  was  sent  to  the  Clem- 
entine ;  thence,  under  their  escort,  the 
priests  proceeded  to  the  shore,  the  com- 
manders of  the  men-of-war  attending 
them  to  their  former  residence.  The 
English  flag  was  then  re-hoisted  on  the 
Clementine,  which,  by  the  order  of  Cap- 
tain Belcher,  was  despatched  to  Maui, 
for  the  king. 

His  majesty  arrived  on  the  20th,  and 
on  the  next  day  an  audience  took  place. 
The  two  commanders  refused  to  admit 
the  interpretations  of  Mr.  Bingham,  who 
had  been  selected  by  the  king  for  that 
purpose.  Mr.  Andrews,  of  the  mission, 
was  then  chosen,  with  their  approba- 
tion, and  Mr.  Bingham  retired  to  the 
back  part  of  the  room.  One  of  the  for- 
eign officers  present  crowded  him  back 
against  the  wall ;  upon  stepping  aside 
to  avoid  this,  he  received  a  violent  blow 
from  a  movement  of  the  elbow  of  the  in- 
dividual who  so  determinedly  insulted 
him.  One  of  the  council  separated 
them,  and  a  file  of  armed  men  was  or- 
dered in  by  the  king.  Another  officer 
drew  his  sword  partly  from  its  scabbard, 
and  stepping  up  to  Mr.  Bingham,  said, 
menacingly,  "do  you  see  that?"  Ac- 
cording to  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Short, 
Captain  Belcher  threatened  to  hang 
Bingham  to  the  yard-arm  of  his  vessel ; 
though  another  authority  relates  that  he 
merely  said  that  if  any  of  his  men  were 
injured  in  doing  their  duty,  he  would  be 
the  first  man  he  should  seize.  These 
instances  serve  to  show  the  virulence 
with  which  his  enemies  had  been  ena- 
bled to  inspire  acquaintances  of  but  few 
days  standing.  Mr.  Bingham  enjoyed 
the  confidence  of  the  chiefs,  and  was 
devoted  to  the  cause  in  which  he  had 
embarked.  He  had  the  reputation  of  a 


148 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


much  more  active  interference  in  polit- 
ical matters  than  he  actually  possessed. 
His  opinions  however  given,  undoubted- 
ly carried  with  them  great  weight  among 
the  native  population.  The  want  of  a 
responsible,  intelligent  adviser  had  never 
been  more  felt  than  at  this  juncture. 
From  his  long  residence  at  Honolulu, 
Mr.  Bingham  had  acquired  a  prominence 
in  the  affairs  of  the  mission,  which  had 
drawn  upon  his  head,  in  particular,  the 
obloquy,  calumnies  and  deepest  hatred 
of  the  opposing  party.  On  him  was 
showered  their  wit,  sarcasm,  insinuations 
and  falsities;  his  private  and  public  char- 
acter assailed,  and  all  that  detraction 
could  effect,  done  to  ruin  him.  He 
withstood  the  storm  with  a  firmness, 
mingled  with  forbearance,  that  gained 
him  the  respect  of  the  unprejudiced, 
while  his  warm  affections  and  sincerity 
strongly  attached  him  to  those  who  knew 
him  intimately.  But  it  must  be  acknowl- 
edged, he  possessed  a  tenacity  of  opin- 
ion and  a  sectarian  zeal,  which  at  times 
separated  him-  in  some  degree  from  his 
friends,  and  marred  his  usefulness.  The 
language  and  conduct  of  the  English 
consul  was  in  accordance  with  his  char- 
acter, supported  by  the  presence  of  com- 
manders pliable  to  his  will.  He  bullied 
and  stormed,  and  finally  shook  his  fist 
in  Kinau's  face.  After  a  weary  discus- 
sion of  eight  hours,  it  was  conceded  that 
the  priests  should  remain  until  an  op- 
portunity for  their  leaving  offered ;  the 
respective  commanders  pledging  them- 
selves mutually  for  their  countrymen, 
that  they  should  conform  to  the  laws 
while  they  remained.*  By  these  docu- 
ments, it  is  evident  that  they  assented 
to  the  demand  of  the  government,  that 
they  had  a  right  to  keep  from  their 
border  individuals  of  any  nation  dan- 
gerous to  the  state.  In  every  instance 
where  the  chiefs  were  enabled  to  obtain 
a  hearing,  even  tinder  the  most  unfavor- 


*  HONOLULU,  July  21,  1837. 

The  undersigned,  captain  of  the  ship,  commander  of 
the  French  frigate  La  Venus,  promises  in  the  name  of 
Mr.  Bachelot,  that  he  will  seize  the  first  favorable  op- 
portunity which  offers  to  quit  these  islands,  to  go  either 
to  Manila,  Lima,  Valparaiso,  or  any  civilized  part  of 
the  world ;  and  in  case  such  an  one  is  not  presented, 
on  the  arrival  of  the  first  French  man-of-war  which 
visits  these  islands,  he  shall  be  received  on  board.  In 
the  meantime,  Mr.  Bachelot  shall  not  preach. 

A.  DU  PETIT  THOUARS,  Post  Captain, 

Commanding  French  Frigate  La  Venus. 
Captain  Belcher  signed  a  similar  one  in  behalf  of 
Mr.  Short. 


able  circumstances,  this  right  was  con- 
ceded. 

On  the  23d,  the  king  consented  to  the 
following  interpretation  of  the  Russell 
treaty,  which,  although  it  justly  modi- 
fied, did  not  alter  its  general  tenor  : 

HONOLULU,  July  23,  1837. 
BY  KAMEHAMEHA  in..  King  of  the  Sandwich  Islands : 

We  consent  to  the  interpretation  you  desire,  on  the 
first  article  of  the  treaty  made  with  Lord  Edward  Rus- 
sell, in  "conformity  with  the  laws  of  nations." 

And,  in  the  event  of  finding  it  necessary  to  exert  the 
power  "  of  refusal  to  admit  a  subject  of  Great  Britain," 
we  will  grant  a  fair  trial,  and  give  satisfactory  reasons 
for  our  act,  of  which  due  notice  shall  be  given  to  the 
consul  of  his  majesty  the  King  of  Great  Britain. 

(Signed,)  KAMEHAMEHA. 

Captain  Du  Petit  Thouars  negotiated 
the  following  articles  in  behalf  of  his 
government : 

HONOLULU,  SANDWICH  ISLES,  July  24,  1837. 
There  shall  be  perpetual  peace  and  amity  between 
the  French  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  Sandwich  Isles. 
The  French  shall  go  and  come  freely  in  all  the  states 
which  compose  the  government  of  the  Sandwich  Isles. 
They  shall  be  received  and  protected  there,  and  shall 
enjoy  the  same  advantages  which  the  subjects  of  the 
most  favored  nations  enjoy. 

Subjects  of  the  King  of  the  Sandwich  Isles  shall 
equally  come  into  France,  shall  be  received  and  pro- 
tected there  as  the  most  favored  foreigners. 
(Signed,)  KAMEHAMEHA  III. 

A.  DU  PETIT  THOUARS, 
Captain,  Commander  of  the  French  frigate  La  Venus. 

They  are  remarkable  for  their  brevity, 
and  may  be  called  a  compendium  of  pre- 
vious treaties.  It  is  important  fully  to 
understand  the  nature  of  this,  as  it  is 
asserted  that  it  gave  the  unqualified  right 
for  Frenchmen  to  reside  within  the  king- 
dom ;  it  is  evident  that  they  were  to  re- 
ceive simply  the  same  advantages  as  the 
most  favored  nation.  England  then  stood 
in  that  light,  and  the  right  of  expelling 
obnoxious  persons,  for  "satisfactory  rea- 
sons," had  been  fully  conceded.  Thouars 
had  acknowledged,  by  his  bond  for  the 
departure  of  Bachelot,  that  individuals 
of  his  profession  were  of  the  character 
described  by  the  government,  and  their 
full  authority  to  proscribe  the  teachings 
of  Romanism.  All  other  Frenchmen 
enjoyed  the  fullest  protection  and  hos- 
pitality, yet  for  an  alleged  violation  of 
their  privileges,  the  vengeance  of  France 
was  afterwards  poured  upon  the  devoted 
chiefs.  M.  Dudoit  was  appointed  as 
French  agent  on  the  part  of  France,  in 
which  capacity  he  fulfilled  the  duties  of 
consul,  with  the  approbation  of  his  gov- 
ernment. On  the  24th  July,  both  vessels 
sailed  without  exchanging  the  usual  na- 
tional courtesies. 

The  24th  of  September  following,  H. 


HISTORY   OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


149 


B.  M.  frigate  Imogene,  Captain  Bruce, 
arrived.  Previous  to  leaving  Valparaiso, 
some  priests  had  applied  to  him  for  a 
passage  to  Oahu;  this  he  refused,  and 
advised  them  not  to  attempt  to  force 
themselves  into  the  country.  It  was 
known  that  they  were  on  their  way,  and 
M.  Dudoit  endeavored  to  induce  Captain 
Bruce  to  interpose  with  the  chiefs  to 
allow  them  to  land,  which  he  declined. 
Desirous  of  not  further  involving  them- 
selves with  France,  the  government 
sought  his  advice  in  regard  to  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  treaty  of  Thouars.  He 
frankly  told  them  its  true  meaning,  and 
of  which  not  a  doubt  can  exist.  No 
nation  has  a  right  to  force  its  creed,  its 
laws  or  its  language  upon  another.  To 
be  done  at  all  it  must  be  by  conquest. 
The  government  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands 
had  received,  after  a  close  scrutiny,  the 
forms  of  a  faith  which  it  found  well 
adapted  to  its  circumstances.  Wisely 
or  not,  it  had  been  voluntarily  chosen, 
and  was  now  warmly  cherished.  At  this 
epoch,  when  through  its  instrumentality, 
the  nation  was  rapidly  advancing  to  a 
respectable  footing,  and  its  aggregate 
wealth,  morals  and  civilization  increas- 
ing, it  desired  simply  "  to  be  let  alone." 
But  France,  deceived  by  the  falsehoods 
of  its  internal  foes,  lent  herself  to  a  party 
which  honest  minds  recoiled  from  in  dis- 
gust ;  and  her  artillery  was  destined  to 
effect  what  combined  Jesuitism,  treach- 
ery and  disloyalty  had  been  unable  to 
accomplish. 

Mr.  Short  sailed  for  Valparaiso  Octo- 
ber 30th.  Three  days  afterward  the 
ship  Europa  arrived,  with  M.  Maigret, 
pro-vicar  of  the  Roman  Catholic  bishop 
of  Nilopolis,  who  was  the  head  of  the 
newly-formed  see  of  Oceanica.  The  na- 
tive authorities,  having  received  inform- 
ation of  the  presence  of  Maigret,  gave 
orders  to  the  pilot  not  to  bring  the  ship 
to  anchor.  Permission  was  finally  grant- 
ed to  bring  her  into  the  harbor;  the 
owner  being  bound  over  by  the  sum  of 
ten  thousand  dollars  not  to  permit  the 
landing  of  the  priest.*  Various  subter- 

*  M.  Maigret  (Annals  de  le  Propagation  de  la  Foi, 
1840,)  says,  Governor  Kekuanaoa  "was  surprised  or  en- 
trapped [surprit]  into  granting  permission  to  enter  the 
port.  It  is  amusing  to  see  with  -what  boldness  the 
author  of  the  supplement  to  the  Sandwich  Islands  Mir- 
ror denies  all  attempts  at  evasion  of  their  designs,  and 
claims  for  his  party  throughout  perfect  ingenuousness, 


fuges  were  employed  to  procure  the  de- 
sired object ;  the  old  story  was  repeated 
that  he  was  to  remain  only  transitorily, 
and  had  come  to  secure  passage  to  the 
Marquesas  group.  This  plea  was  the 
more  inconsistent,  as  it  was  well  known 
that  he  had  just  left  Tahiti,  where  in- 
tercourse with  those  islands  was  com- 
mon, while  from  Oahu  it  was  of  rare 
occurrence.  M.  Dudoit,  who  was  active 
in  his  endeavors  to  secure  his  landing, 
would  give  no  pecuniary  security  for  his 
departure,  or  settle  upon  any  definite 
period  beyond  which  his  stay  should  not 
be  protracted.  It  was  evident  that  it 
was  only  an  attempt  at  the  renewal  of 
the  scenes  of  the  previous  year,  and  the 
chiefs  determined  to  nip  the  conspir- 
acy in  the  bud.-  Captains  Thouars  and 
Vaillant  had  both  assented  to  the  jus- 
tice of  their  exclusion ;  consequently  the 
threats  of  M.  Dudoit,  in  regard  to  a 
violation  of  the  prerogatives  of  his  coun- 
trymen, did  not  alter  their  intention. 
Finding  it  impossible  to  tamper  longer 
with  the  government,  Messrs.  Bachelot 
and  Maigret  purchased  a  schooner, 
which  they  intended  for  the  service  of 
their  stations  in  the  South  Pacific.  The 
captain  of  the  Europa  received  permis- 
sion to  embark  his  passenger  on  board 
their  vessel;  two  thousand  dollars  fine 
and  imprisonment  were  to  be  the  penal- 
ties, should  Maigret  attempt  to  escape 
on  shore.  On  the  23d  of  November,  the 
priests  sailed.  Bachelot,  who  was  in 
feeble  health,  died  on  the  4th  of  Decem- 
ber, and  was  buried  at  Ascension. 

Walsh  was  the  only  priest  left;  his 
outward  conformation  to  the  laws  was, 
probably,  the  motive  by  which  he  was 
allowed  to  remain. 

The  chiefs  desirous  of  bringing  their 
complaints  directly  before  the  cabinets 
of  London  and  Washington,  addressed 
petitions  to  the  King  of  Great  Britain 
and  the  President  of  the  United  States, 


while  the  priests  themselves,  in  their  published  ac- 
counts, unhesitatingly  declare  the  various  pretexts 
made  use  of  for  purposes  of  deception.  It  is  unfortu- 
nate for  their  cause  that  so  much  discrepancy  should 
have  appeared  between  these  witnesses  in  their  behalf. 
Any  one  desirous  of  verifying  this  remark,  need  but  to 
refer  to  the  pamphlet  in  question,  and  the  Annals 
above  mentioned. 

Maigret  says,  after  Kekuanaoa  had  been  "  deceived  " 
by  others  in  relation  to  his  profession,  he  asked  him 
personally  whether  he  was  a  priest.  "I  answered," 
he  writes,  "  at  once,  and  with  a  frankness  which  dis- 
pleased some  persons,  but  I  could  not  betray  my  con- 
science to  please  them." 


150 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


relative  to  the  factious  course  of  their 
consuls.  The  former  was  without  avail 
— the  latter  had  the  effect  to  cause  the 
removal  of  Jones,  and  the  appointment 
of  Mr.  P.  A.  Brinsmade,  a  friendly  mer- 
chant residing  at  Honolulu. 

THE  PETITION  OF  KAMEHAMEHA  III.  AND  HIS  CHIEFS 

TO  THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF 

AMERICA  -. 

We  the  said  chiefs  of  the  Sandwich  Islands  salute  you, 
desiring  to  confirm  the  good  understanding  in  these  isl- 
ands with  American  citizens,  when  they  come  into  this 
kingdom,  in  the  same  manner  as  with  citizens  of  every 
other  country.  And  we  esteem  and  honor  your  people, 
because  we  have  heard  that  our  people  are  cherished 
there,  dwelling  under  the  laws  and  regulations  of  the 
country  in  peace.  Likewise  we  protect  people  of  your 
country,  who  are  dwelling  orderly,  with  obedience  to  the 
laws  and  regulations.  Let  us  be  regarded  with  favor, 
for  we  are  a  little  nation,  and  ignorant  also,  like  an  infant 
amidst  the  continents,  and  we  greatly  desire  to  learn. 
Moreover,  the  teachers  from  your  country  are  teaching 
us,  and  that  the  good  understanding  may  be  perpetual, 
we  write  to  you  with  amity  respecting  a  certain  matter 
which  we  would  not  mention  but  because  of  our  necessity 
and  straightened  circumstances,  we  think  it  proper  to 
declare  and  make  known  to  you  as  follows  •. 

The  dwelling  of  a  certain  man,  Mr.  J.  C.  Jones,  at  this 
place,  Honolulu,  Oahu,  as  American  Consul. 

We  thought  he  was  a  good  and  just  man  when  he  was 
appointed  to  the  office,  but  in  the  performance  of  its  func- 
tions we  have  been  disappointed,  for  he  is  a  person  who 
indulges  an  intriguing  disposition  .and  contempt  of  us, 
and  we  cannot  depend  upon  his  advice.  He  opposes  us, 
and  prrjudices  the  minds  of  strangers  and  natives  against 
us,  by  misrepresentation.  He  treats  our  laws  with  con- 
tempt, and  violates  some  of  them,  and  supports  other 
persons  in  doing  the  same. 

And  these  things  which  have  been  stated  to  you,  and 
you  have  now  seen,  we  declare  with  truth  and  amity  to 
you.  We  are  sorry  to  state  these  things,  but  we  cannot 
suppress  them  that  they  be  unknown  ;  therefore,  we  make 
them  known  respecting  the  said  person.  And  if  you  can 
set  aside  this  man,  and  place  a  good  man  in  his  stead, 
we  shall  be  gratified. 

Signed,  Kamehameha  III.,  Kaahumanu  II.,  Hoapili, 
Hoapiliwahine,  Kekauluohi,  Kekuanaoa,  Paki. 

Honolulu,  November,  1837. 

Kinau  died  April  4th,  1839,  and  was 
succeeded  by  her  .sister,  Kekauluohi, 
acting  for  Victoria,  infant  daughter  of 
Kinau,  to  whom  her  office  and  title,  by 
custom,  descended. 

Effectually  to  forbid  the  introduction 
of  the  faith  from  which  so  much  trouble 
had  ensued,  a  severe  ordinance,  cover- 
ing all  grounds  upon  which  it  had  been 
attempted,  had  been  issued  in  Decem- 
ber, 1837.  The  will  of  the  chiefs  in 
this  respect,  was  the  more  confirmed  as 
the  opposition  increased.  A  number  of 
their  subjects  were  arrested  and  confined 
for  their  adherence  to  the  doctrines  of 
the  priests.  They  manifested  a  dogged 
obstinacy  to  the  authorities,  and  a  con- 
tumely which  brought  upon  them  un- 
necessary severities.  They  considered 
themselves  of  a  separate  party,  and 
rigidly  incorporated  their  religion  with 
their  politics,  hoping  for  the  final  over- 


throw of  the  government.  They  were 
few,  ignorant  and  powerless ;  the  meni- 
als of  the  governor  frequently  appre- 
hended them  when  they  were  detected  in 
the  exercise  of  their  rites,  and  carried 
them  before  him.  Whenever  these  cases 
were  known  to  the  American  mission- 
aries, they  were  made  the  subject  of 
earnest  and  successful  remonstrance ;  by 
their  intercession  many  were  released, 
and  the  folly  and  wickedness  of  persecu- 
tion, for  religious  belief,  so  strongly  rep- 
resented to  his  majesty,  that  on  the  17th 
of  June,  1839,  he  issued  orders  that  no 
more  punishments  should  be  inflicted ; 
and  that  all  who  were  then  in  confine- 
ment should  be  released.  This  was  done 
at  Lahaina.  Previous  to  its  promulga- 
tion at  Oahu,  sixty  natives  were  driven 
from  Waialae  to  Honolulu.  Most  of 
these  were  immediately  released  and  re- 
turned to  their  homes.  Some,  however, 
were  confined  in  the  fort.  On  the  24th 
of  June,  two  women  were  found  there, 
ironed  and  suffering  much  from  the 
painful  posture  in  which  they  had  been 
placed.  The  governor  was  absent,  but, 
so  states  the  author  of  the  supplement 
to  the  Sandwich  Islands  Mirror,  the  for- 
eign "gentlemen  succeeded  in  liberating 
the  prisoners."  No  inquiries  were  made 
of  the  proper  authorities  as  to  the  na- 
ture of  their  offences,  but  they  took  upon 
themselves  to  set  aside  the  municipal 
law ;  an  illegal  procedure,  but  too  com- 
mon in  Honolulu  among  the  opposers 
of  the  chiefs.  Inhumanity  to  the  inno- 
cent or  guilty,  can  never  be  justified. 
But  benevolence,  which  is  altogether 
one-sided,  cannot  be  called  praisewor- 
thy; the  principal  of  these  meddlers  had 
often  been  instrumental  in  confining  sea- 
men and  natives,  under  circumstances  of 
equal  hardship,  against  whom  they  pro- 
fessed to  have  cause  of  complaint.  Here 
there  was  an  opportunity  not  to  be  lost, 
of  proclaiming  their  charity,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  .their  neighbors.  Blind  to  the 
more  judicious  interposition  of  the  Amer- 
ican missionaries,  they  boldly  charged 
upon  them  the  authorship  of  a  species 
of  prison  discipline,  on  which  they  had 
looked  calmly,  and  had  actively  used 
when  for  their  own  advantage,  for  twenty 
years.  As  unblushingly  they  boasted  of 
their  unwarrantable  efforts  in  effecting 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


151 


the  release  of  the  women.  One  gentle- 
man, who  had  been  witness  to  their  con- 
finement, had,  previous  to  this,  hurried 
to  the  governor  to  intercede  on  their  ac- 
count. On  his  way  he  met  Mr.  Bing- 
ham,  to  whom  he  related  the  facts,  and 
begged  kim  to  see  for  himself.  Mr. 
Bingham  having  heard  of  the  edict  of 
the  king,  informed  him  that  it  was  pos- 
sible they  were  punished  for  some  crim- 
inal act;  religious  toleration  having  been 
proclaimed  the  week  before.  To  satisfy 
himself,  he  waited  upon  the  governor 
immediately,  and  informed  him  of  the 
circumstances.  The  governor  promptly 
ordered  their  release,  "  for  their  confine- 
ment was  not  by  the  order  of  the  chiefs." 

In  the  meanwhile,  those  who  had  been 
so  active  at  the  fort,  proceeded,  taking 
the  women  with  them,  to  the  house  of 
the  governor.  On  their  way,  they  met 
him ;  surprised  at  such  a  cortege,  he 
remanded  the  prisoners  to  the  fort,  and 
to  the  dictatorial  tone  with  which  he  was 
addressed,  replied,  "  your  business  is  to 
take  care  of  your  stores ;  there  is  the 
road  to  them  :  mine  is  the  government 
of  the  island  and  the  fort;  and  this  is 
my  path."  Upon  receiving  this  well 
merited  rebuke,  they  dispersed.  It  was 
afterwards  charged  upon  the  governor 
that  he  was  "  disposed  to  be  insolent !  " 

Whatever  may  be  the  secret  of  the 
influence  the  agents  of  Romanism  pos- 
sess in  the  councils  of  France,  it  is 
certain  that,  of  late  years,  the  French 
Roman  Catholic  missions  have  received 
efficient  support  from  their  government ; 
and  in  the  Pacific,  political  aggrandize- 
ment and  religious  proselytism  have  been 
intimately  connected.  The  priests  ap- 
peared openly,  under  the  patronage  of 
their  nation.  Ships  of  war  carried  them 
from  one  post  to  another  ;  the  military 
paid  deference  to  the  spiritual ;  the  po- 
litical consequence  of  their  bishops  was 
enforced  by  arms,  and  warlike  salutes 
announced  their  rank.  The  seizure  and 
occupation  of  the  Marquesan  and  Ta- 
hitian  groups  have  now  become  matters 
of  history.  That  the  Hawaiian  did  not 
fall  into  the  same  hands  was  owing 
solely  to  its  superior  importance  and 
the  mutual  jealousies  of  other  powers. 
Every  effort  was  made  by  their  agents 
to  compass  a  similar  result. 


The  French  frigate  Artemise,  C.  La- 
place, commander,  arrived  off  Honolulu 
July  10th,  1839.  The  purpose  of  this 
visit  was  speedily  made  known  to  the 
Hawaiian  government  by  the  following 
manifesto,  addressed  to  the  king,  by- 
Captain  Laplace,  in  the  name  of  his 
government : 


an- 

nd, 

to 

ich 


"Ilia  majesty  the  king  of  the  French,  having  com- 
manded me  to  come  to  Honolulu  in  order  to  put  an  end, 
either  by  force  or  persuasion,  to  the  ill  treatment 
which  the  French  have  been  victims  at  the  Sandwich. 
Islands,  1  hasten,  first,  to  employ  this  last  means  as  the 
most  conformable  to  the  political,  noble  and  liberal  sys- 
tem pursued  by  France  against  the  powerless  ;  hoping 
thereby  that  I  shall  make  the  principal  chiefs  of  these 
islands  understand  how  fatal  the  conduct  which  they 
pursue  towards  her  will  be  to  their  interests,  and,  per- 
haps, cause  disasters  to  them,  and  to  their  country, 
should  they  be  obstinate  in  their  perseverance.  Misled 
by  perfidious  counselors,  deceived  by  the  excessive  in- 
dulgence which  the  French  government  has  extended  to- 
ward them  for  several  years,  they  are  undoubtedly  igno- 
rant how  potent  it  is,  and  that  in  the  world  there  is  not 
a  power  which  is  capable  of  preventing  it  from  punishing 
its  enemies ;  otherwise  they  would  have  endeavored  to 
merit  its  lavor,  or  not  to  incur  its  displeasure,  as  they 
have  done  in  ill  treating  the  French  ;  they  would  have 
faithfully  put  into  execution  the  treaties,  in  place  of  vio- 
lating them  as  soon  as  the  fear  disappeared,  as  well  as 
the  ships  of  war  which  had  caused  it,  whereby  bad  inten- 
tions had  been  constrained.  In  fine,  they  will  compre- 
hend that  to  persecute  the  Catholic  religion,  to  tarnish  it 
with  the  name  of  idolatry,  and  to  expel  under  this  absurd 
pretext,  the  French  from  this  archipelago,  was  to  offer 
an  insult  to  France  and  to  its  sovereign. 

It  is,  without  doubt,  the  formal  intention  of  France 
that  the  king  of  the  Sandwich  Islands  be  powerful,  inde- 
pendent of  every  foreign  power,  and  that  he  consider  her 
his  ally  5  but  she  also  demands  that  he  conforms  to  the 
usages  of  civilized  nations.  Now,  among  the  latter,  there 
is  not  even  one  which  does  not  permit  in  its  territory  the 
free  toleration  of  all  religions  ;  and  yet,  at  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  the  French  are  not  allowed,  publicly,  the  exercise 
of  theirs,  while  Protestants  enjoy  therein  the  most  ex- 
tensive privileges  ;  for  ihese,  all  favors— for  those,  the 
most  cruel  persecution.  Such  a  state  of  affairs  being 
contrary  to  the  laws  of  nations,  insulting  to  those  of 
Catholics,  can  uo  longer  continue,  and  I  am  sent  to  put 
an  end  to  it.  Consequently,  I  demand,  in  the  name  of 
my  government, 

1st.  That  the  Catholic  worship  be  declared  free 
throughout  all  the  dominions  subject  to  the  king  of  the 
Sandwich  Islands  ;  that  the  members  of  this  religious 
faith  shall  enjoy  in  them  all  the  privileges  granted  to 
Protestants. 

2d.  That  a  site  for  a  Catholic  church  be  given  by  the 
government  at  Honolulu,  a  port  frequented  by  the  French, 
and  that  this  church  be  ministered  by  priests  of  their 
nation. 

3d.  That  all  Catholics  imprisoned,  on  account  of  reli- 
gion, since  the  last  persecutions  extended  to  the  French 
missionaries,  be  immediately  set  at  liberty. 

4th.  That  the  king  of  the  Sandwich  Islands  deposit 
in  the  hands  of  the  captain  of  the  Arternise,  the  sum  of 
twenty  thousand  dollars  as  a  guarantee  of  his  future  con- 
duct towards  France,  which  sum  the  government  will  re- 
store to  him  when  it  shall  consider  that  the  accompany- 
ing treaty  will  be  faithfully  complied  with. 

5th.  That  the  treaty  signed  by  the  king  of  the  Sand- 
wich Islands,  as  well  as  the  sum  above  mentioned,  be 
conveyed  on  board  the  frigate  Artemise  by  one  of  the 
principal  chiefs  of  the  country  ;  and  also  that  the  bat- 
teries of  Honolulu  do  salute  the  French  flag  with  twenty- 
one  guns,  which  will  be  returned  by  the  frigate. 

These  are  the  equitable  conditions,  at  the  price  of  which 
the  king  of  the  Sandwich  Islands  shall  conserve  friend- 
ship with  France.  I  am  induced  to  hope  that,  under- 
standing better  how  necessary  it  is  for  the  prosperity  of 
his  people,  and  the  preservation  of  his  power,  he  will  re- 
main in  peace  with  the  whole  world,  and  hasten  to  sub- 
scribe to  them,  and  thus  imitate  the  laudable  example 
which  the  queen  of  Tahiti  has  given  in  permitting  the 


152 


tilSTORI'  Of  THE  BAWA1IAX  ISLANDS. 


free  toleration  of  the  Catholic  religion  in  her  dominions  ; 
but,  if  contrary  to  my  expectations,  it  should  be  other- 
wise, and  the  king  and  principal  chiefs  of  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  led  on  by  had  counselors,  refuse  to  sign  the 
treaty  which  I  present,  war  will  immediately  commence, 
and  all  the  devastations,  all  (he  calamities  which  may  be 
the  unhappy  but  necessary  results,  will  be  Imputed  to 
themselves  alone  ;  and  they  must  also  pay  the  losses 
which  the  aggrieved  foreigners,  in  these  circumstances, 
shall  have  a  right  to  reclaim. 

The  10th  of  July  (9th,  according  to  date  here),  1839. 
Captain  of  the  French  frigate  Artemise, 

(Signed,)  C.  LAPLACE." 

This  document  is  a  strange  compound 
of  error  and  falsehood.  To  declare  that 
free  toleration  of  all  religions  is  permit- 
ted in  the  territories  of  all  civilized  na- 
tions, was  untrue  ;  also  that  Frenchmen 
had  been  persecuted  under  the  plea  of 
their  religion.  Mr.  Short,  an  English 
subject,  had  been  sent  away  with  the 
consent  of  his  government ;  two  French 
priests,  the  departure  of  one  of  whom 
had  been  guaranteed  by  the  highest  offi- 
cial authority  of  their  nation  that  had 
visited  Oahu,  had  also  been  sent  off. 
The  few  remaining  Frenchmen  who  lived 
at  these  islands,  of  whom  there  were  not 
above  four,  and  the  three  whaleships 
which  had  for  two  years  before  alone 
represented  their  commerce,  had  been 
treated  with  all  the  respect  and  hospital- 
ity enjoyed  by  the  most  favored  nation. 
The  following  letter  was  sent  ashore  at 
the  same  time : 

MONSIEUR  LE  CONSUL  : 

Having  been  sent  by  my  government  to  put  an  end  to 
the  i'.l  treatment  to  which,  under  the  false  pre  exts  of 
Catholicity,  the  French  have  been  subjected,  for  several 
years,  in  this  archipelago,  my  intention  is  to  commence 
hostilities  on  the  13th  of  July  (which  is  the  12th  of  your 
date),  at  12  M.,  against  the  king  of  the  Sandwich  Islands, 
should  he  refuse  to  accede  immediately  to  the  just  condi- 
tions of  the  treaty  presented  by  me,  the  clauses  of  which 
I  explain  in  the  Manifesto  of  which  I  have  the  honor  of 
sending  you  a  copy.  Should  this  chief,  contrary  to  my 
expectation,  persist  in  his  blindness,  or,  to  express  my- 
self more  plainly,  to  foliow  the  advice  of  interested  coun- 
selors, to  deceive  himself,  I  shall  be  constrained,  in  this 
case,  to  employ  the  strong  means  of  force  which  I  have 
at  my  disposition.  I  consider  it  my  duty  to  iniorm  you, 
Monsieur  le  Consul,  that  I  offer  asylum  and  protection, 
on  board  the  frigate  Artemise,  to  those  of  your  compatriots 
who  may  apprehend  danger,  under  these  circumstances, 
on  the  part  of  the  natives,  either  for  their  persons  or 
property. 

Receive, Monsieur  le  Consul,  the  assurances  of  the  very 
distinguished  considerations  of  your  devoted  servant. 

Post  Captain,  commanding  the  ship  Artemise, 

C.  LAPLACE. 

A  similar  communication  was  also 
addressed  to  the  American  consul,  with 
this  addition  : 

"  I  do  not,  however,  include  in  this  class  the  individuals 
who,  although  born,  it  is  said:  in  the  United  States,  make 
a  part  of  the  Protestant  clergy  of  the  chief  of  this  archi- 
pelago, direct  his  councils,  influence  his  conduct,  and  are 
the  true  authors  of  the  insults  given  by  him  to  France. 
For  me,  they  compose  a  part  of  the  native  population, 
and  must  undergo  the  unhappy  consequences  of  a  war 
which  they  shall  have  brought  on  this  country." 


By  the  tenor  of  the  last,  it  is  uncertain 
whether  Captain  Laplace  intended  to  in 
elude  in  his  denunciation  Mr.  Kichards 
only,  as  being  the  sole  official  advise] 
of  the  chiefs,  or  the  entire  Protestan 
clergy,  as  exercising  an  influence  hostik 
to  his  faith.     They  considered  it  as  ap- 
plying to  their  whole  body,  and  were 
much  alarmed,  particularly  as  Laplace, 
in  verbal  communication  with  the  Amer- 
ican consul,  had  informed  him  that  the 
American  flag  would  prove  no  protection 
to  the  proscribed  individuals;  and  that  if 
a  man  of  his  vessel  should  be  injured,  it 
was  to  be  a  war  of  extermination. 

The  harbor  was  declared  under  block- 
ade ;  a  vessel  of  the  king's  in  attempting 
to  reach  Maui,  with  despatches  for  his 
majesty,  was  captured,  but  suffered  to 
proceed ;  Haalilio,  his  secretary,  re- 
maining on  board  the  frigate  as  a  host- 
age for  his  arrival.  At  the  request  of 
Kekauluohi,  the  date  of  commencing 
hostilities  was  postponed  until  the  15th, 
that  sufficient  time  might  be  allowed  for 
the  arrival  of  the  king.  The  excitement 
among  all  classes  was  great;  many  fear- 
ed the  natives  would  take  advantage  of 
the  first  confusion,  fire  the  town  and 
plunder  the  property  of  the  residents. 
A  number  of  the  latter  organized  them- 
selves into  an  armed  force,  to  act  in  case 
of  emergency.  The  native  authorities 
took  such  active  measures  to  insure  tran- 
quility,  that  the  town  remained  perfectly 
quiet ;  guards  were  stationed  at  exposed 
points,  and  the  people  required  to  abide 
the  orders  of  government.  A  disposition 
to  a  passive  resistance  to  the  demands 
of  Laplace  was  at  first  manifested.  It 
was  proposed  to  abandon  the  town  to 
the  landing  force,  and  strike  the  flag  at 
the  firing  of  the  first  gun  from  the  frigate. 
Had  Kinau  been  alive,  it  was  thought 
more  energetic  councils  would  have  pre- 
vailed ;  Kekauluohi  was  inferior  to  her  in 
decision  and  intellectual  capacity.  Ex- 
aggerated stories  were  set  afloat  among 
the  native  population.  It  was  said  the 
French  were  to  carry  fire  and  sword 
through  the  island ;  their  guns  were  able 
to  reach  the  distance  of  ten  miles,  and 
to  add  to  their  horror,  were  loaded  with 
the  limbs  of  natives.  The  lowest  class 
of  whites,  who  had  long  writhed  under 
the  municipal  regulations  for  the  pre- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


153 


servation  of  decency,  rejoiced  at  the 
prospect  of  the  approaching  storm.  The 
expected  warfare  was  to  be  to  them  a 
jubilee  of  license  and  revenge.  But  the 
thinking  part  of  the  community  freely 
expressed  their  opinion  of  the  conduct 
of  France  toward  her  ill-matched  oppo- 
nent; their  sympathies  were  warmly  en- 
listed with  the  native  rulers ;  and  while 
they  would  have  regretted  the  wanton 
destruction  of  lives  or  property,  they 
would  have  rejoiced  in  any  scheme  by 
which  the  ill-disguised  threats  and  tri- 
umph of  the  white  allies  of  the  Boki 
faction  could  have  been  defeated.  In  the 
fierceness  of  the  zeal  of  these  enemies 
of  the  nation,  the  most  unwarrantable 
expressions  were  used;  those  whose  pro- 
fessions had  been  the  loudest  for  simply 
religious  toleration,  whose  clamor  had 
been,  if  their  own  accounts  are  to  be 
credited,  solely  for  the  diffusion  of  equal 
rights,  to  infuse  humanity  into  the  acts 
of  government,  now  lusted  for  revenge. 
The  English  consul  was  away  during 
the  first  excitement ;  upon  his  arrival, 
he  intrigued  to  defeat  the  designs  of  a 
party  that  had  now  become  so  formida- 
ble as  to  form  a  separate  French  inter- 
est, headed  by  M.  Dudoit.  French  or 
American  ascendency  was  equally  ob- 
noxious to  him  ;  a  moral  ascendency, 
more  than  either.  The  missionaries 
were  alarmed.  Hated  and  mocked  at 
by  some  of  their  own  countrymen,  im- 
plicated in  alleged  criminality  with  the 
government,  no  explanation  allowed  from 
either,  threats  of  pillage  r,nd  bloodshed 
hourly  borne  to  their  trembling  families, 
it  argues  no  deficiency  of  courage,  know- 
ing from  past  experience  the  depth  of 
the  hostility  that  environed  them,  if  they 
did  fear  the  consequences  for  their  wives 
and  children.  The  friendly  foreigners, 
engrossed  by  the  shortness  of  the  time 
for  providing  for  their  own  safety,  could 
only  sympathize  with  them.  Yet  it 
should  be  recorded  that  the  mission 
made  no  attempt  to  shift  any  responsi- 
bility which  their  influence  with  the 
government  could  legally  have  brought 
upon  them.  The  fidelity  of  the  native 
government  to  themr  and  the  generous 
devotion  of  their  converts,  places  the 
relationship  of  all  parties  in  the  highest 
light.  It  was  decided  to  obtain  peace 
20 


|  on  the  terms  demanded.  His  Hawaiian 
Majesty  not  having  arrived  within  the 

i  stipulated  time,  Governor  Kekuanaoa, 
and  the  premier,  Kekauluohi,  in  his  be- 
half, signed  the  treaty,  which,  with  the 
twenty  thousand  dollars,  were  carried  on 
board  the  Artemise  by  the  former.  This 
money  was  raised  with  great  difficulty ; 
the  government  debts  were  yet  unpaid, 
and  much  of  this  sum  was  borrowed  at 
a  high  interest  from  foreign  merchants. 

j  The  tri-colored  flag  received  the  royal 
salute,  which  was  promptly  returned. 
The  king  arrived  on  the  same  day,  Sun- 
day, the  14th.  Captain  Laplace,  escort- 
ed by  two  hundred  seamen  with  fixed 
bayonets  and  a  band  of  music,  went  on 
shore  for  the  purpose  of  celebrating  a 
military  mass.  To  render  this  renewal 
of  Romish  rites  more  poignant,  a  straw 
palace  of  the  king's  was  selected  for  the 
ceremony,  which  was  performed  by  the 
JRev.  Mr.  Walsh. 

The  original  design  of  Rives  was  now 
established  so  far  as  the  formal  intro- 
duction of  Roman  Catholicism  was  con- 
cerned. 

Another  purpose  remained  to  be  gain- 
ed. In  1838>  the  king,  yielding  to  the 
advice  of  his  council,  prohibited  the  in- 
troduction of  ardent  spirits  into  his  king- 
dom, and  laid  a  heavy  duty  on  wines. 
These  measures  were  popular,  and  had 
been  strongly  urged  by  many  foreign- 
ers ;  through  their  influence  the  harbors 
became  quiet  resorts  for  shipping,  in- 
stead of  ports  of  noisy  carousal.  But 
the  dealers  were  not  disposed  to  quietly 
abandon  their  profits ;  the  Sandwich 
Islands  Gazette  openly  recommended  re- 
sistance to  the  collection  of  the  duties. 
Previous  to  the  expected  arrival  of  the 
Artemise,  a  plan  was  concocted  by  which 
the  prohibition  and  duties  should  be  re- 
moved, and  forever  prevented  from  re- 
newal. Capt.  Belcher,  who  had  returned 
in  the  Sulphur,  and  sailed  shortly  before 
the  arrival  of  the  Artemise,  witnessing 
the  good  results  of  the  laws  in  question, 
wrote  to  the  king,  recommending  a  sys- 
tem of  duties  on  liquors  so  high  as  vir- 
tually to  amount  to  prohibition.  But 
Laplace  thought  otherwise.  Inimical  to 
the  nation,  a  stranger  to  its  history,  it 
was  not  to  be  supposed  that  he  should 
be  particularly  anxious  for  the  habits  and 


154 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


health  of  the  Hawaiians,  when  in  compe- 
tition with  the  tastes  and  pecuniary  in- 
terests of  his  countrymen.  So  it  proved. 
A  treaty  was  drawn  up,  and  offered  to 
the  king-  for  his  signature.  Articles  4th 
and  6th  received  his  objections;  the  first, 
because  it  was  supposed  to  put  too  much 
authority  into  the  hands  of  the  consul, 
who  would  have  it  in  his  power  to  shield 
his  countrymen  to  a  considerable  extent 
from  the  action  of  the  civil  law.  The 
other,  that  it  virtually  repealed  all  their 
legislation  for  the  promotion  of  temper- 
ance and  shielding  his  subjects  from  a 
prolific  source  of  evil  and  disease.  It 
also  took  away  from  him  the  power  of 
receiving-  a  revenue  from  imports,  greater 
than  five  per  cent,  ad  valorem. 

As  no  time  was  fixed  for  the  termi- 
nation of  the  treaty,  it  could  be  made 
always  binding  upon  his  government, 
however  injurious  in  its  operation.  It 
was  brought  to  him  at  5  o'clock,  P.  M., 
on  the  16th,  and  he  was  required  to 
sign  it  by  breakfast  the  next  morning. 
INo  amendment  of  the  objectionable  fea- 
tures was  allowed ;  it  must  be  signed  as 
received,  or  not  at  all.  The  king  de- 
sired time  to  consult  with  his  council ; 
this  was  refused.  Neither  the  consul 
nor  Laplace  dared"  openly  to  commit 
themselves,  by  saying  to  him,  that  if  he 
refused  war  would  ensue  ;  but  it  was 
bandied  about  among  his  attendants,  so 
as  to  reach  his  ears,  that  in  such  an 
event  there  would  be  no  end  to  the 
trouble;  that  this  frigate  would  be  suc- 
ceeded by  a  larger  force,  and  ultimately 
his  island  would  be  taken  possession  of. 
It  was  a  successful  design  to  entrap  the 
king  through  his  fears ;  the  treaty  re- 
ceived his  reluctant  signature.  The 
friendship  of  France  was  now  secured, 
and  everything  was  to  go  on  swimming- 
ly. But.  the  unfortunate  monarch  felt 
ill  at  ease.  In  an  interview  with  La- 
place he  repeated  his  objections,  and 
pleaded  his  innocence  of  the  charges  for 
which  his  kingdom  had  suffered.  But  it 
was  to  no  purpose.  Fortified  by  prej- 
udice and  abused  power,  the  repre- 
sentative of  enlightened  and  chivalrous  i 
France  argued  for  inundating  a  nation,  ; 
against  its  will,  with  the  poisonous  pro- 1 
ducts  of  his  own;  to  the  just  and  forcible 
arguments  of  a  semi-civilized  monarch, 


pleading  in  broken  English  his  own  and 
his  country's  wrongs,  replied  with  the 
threadbare  calumnies  of  twenty  years' 
growth  ;  and  to  the  picture  of  the  evils 
which  his  acts  would  produce,  in  so 
youthful  a  stage  of  civilization,  mock- 
ingly answered,  "  civilization  eats  up 
the  savage."  It  is  much  to  be  regretted 
that  those  who  had  the  confidence  of  the 
king  at  this  date  did  not  strenuously 
counsel  him  not  to  sign  a  document 
fraught  with  so  much  injustice  to  his 
kingdom.  There  is  no  reason  to  believe 
that  any  worse  consequence  would  have 
ensued  than  the  disappointment  of  its 
partisans.  But  the  nation  was  yet  too 
young  to  throw  itself  upon  its  rights. 
Much  more  untoward  experience  was  in 
store  for  it,  before  it  could,  claim  a  rank 
among  independent  kingdoms.  After 
the  treaty,  the  external  courtesies  of 
national  intercourse  were  exchanged. 

On  the  20th  of  July  the  Artemise  sail- 
ed ;  but  previous  to  this,  the  residents 
opposed  to  the  missionaries  addressed  a 
letter  of  thanks  to  Captain  Laplace,  in 
which,  after  much  of  similar  character, 
occurs  the  following  passage  : 

"  We  are  willing  to  hope  that  the 
horrifying  realities  of  persecution  and 
torture  for  conscience  sake  will,  by  your 
firmness  and  justice,  have  been  forever 
crushed — never  again  to  show  its  hydra 
head;  and  that  the  simple  and  confiding 
children  of  nature  in  these  islands — so 
long  deluded  by  designing  and  interest- 
ed counselors — will  see  the  necessity  of 
immediately  retracing  their  steps,  and 
taking  a  manly  and  nobly  disinterested 
example  you  have  set  them  for  their 
guide,  that  the  blessings  of  freedom,  and 
peace  and  prosperity,  may  be  hencefor- 
ward the  increasing  portion  of  these 
hitherto  deluded  people." 

The  French  consul  was  not  slow  to 
avail  himself  of  the  extorted  privileges. 
A  vessel  belonging  to  him,  the  same 
Clementine  which  had  already  acquired 
an  unenviable  notoriety  in  the  annals  of 
Hawaii,  returned  from  Valparaiso  in  the 
following  May  with  a  cargo  of  liquors. 
The  bishop  of  Nicopolis,  M.  Maigret, 
and  two  other  priests  came  passengers 
in  her.  The  coincidence  of  ardent  spir- 
its with  the  cause  of  papacy,  had  been 
striking  throughout;  while  Boki  favored 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


the  priests,  intemperance  prevailed  ;  the 
commander  that  had  ensured  them  an 
entrance  into  the  long  coveted  ground, 
provided  for  the  accompaniment  of  li- 
quors. Walsh  encouraged  their  use, 
both  by  example  and  precept.  And 
now  a  vessel  arrived,  well  provided  with 
both.  No  wonder  then  that  the  terms 
for  brandy  and  Frenchmen,  meaning 
Papists,  became  synonymous  through 
the  nation  ;  to  this  day  palani  is  the 
common  term  of  both. 

Previous  to  the  arrival  of  the  bishop 
and  the  priests,  a  disposition  was  mani- 
fested to  renew  the  practices  of  Boki's 
misrule.  Old  songs  and  sports  were  in- 
dulged in  by  the  party  who  had  long 
favored  them  in  secret,  and  forms  of 
vice  and  error  prevailed,  which  it  would 
be  unjust  to  suppose  would  have  re- 
ceived the  countenance  of  their  present 
spiritual  guides.  But  such  facts  serve 
emphatically  to  show  the  difference  of 
opinion  and  desires  among  the  native 
population,  between  those  who  favored 
the  cause  of  Popery  and  the  advocates 
of  Protestantism.  With  the  former,  the 
disorganizers  of  society,  the  rude  and 
reckless,  embodied  themselves,  bringing 
with  them  the  remains  of  their  idolatry, 
and  creating  discredit  to  their  cause ; 
around  the  others,  the  rulers,  scholars, 
and  people  generally,  desirous  of  en- 
forcing moral  restraint  and  the  suprem- 
acy of  law.  Kaikioewa  died  April  10th, 
1839.  Both  he  and  Kinau  were^chiefs 
of  well  known  Christian  principles,  and 
firm  supporters  of  the  American  mission. 
Their  bodies,  after  lying  in  state  for 
several  weeks,  were  committed  to  the 
tomb  with  the  honors  due  their  rank, 
but  with  a  quietness  of  grief,  and  an 
order,  consonant  with  the  faith  which 
they  had  embraced.  The  funeral  cere- 
monies of  Liliha,  who  had  lived  deprived 
of  office  until  her  death,  which  occurred 
on  the  25th  of  August,  1839,  gathered 
the  partisans  of  heathenism  from  all 
quarters.  An  attempt  was  made  to  re- 
vive obsolete  rites ;  wailing  was  heard 
night  and  day ;  the  shouts  of  a  former 
generation  were  renewed;  but  the  guards 
of  the  king  prevented  any  disturbances 
of  the  public  order.  With  her  were 
buried  the  last  hopes  of  the  faction  she 
had  so  energetically  headed. 


155 


Roman  Catholicism  was  now  fully  tol- 
erated, both  as  a  creed  and  a  system  of 
proselytism.  Introduced  however  under 
circumstances  so  repugnant  to  justice 
and  the  wishes  of  the  people,  it  could 
not  be  expected  to  operate  harmoniously 
with  its  rival  faith,  in  the  outset  of  its 
career.  The  sentiment  of  the  nation  was 
against  it.  Not  a  chief  of  importance 
attached  himself  to  the  cause,  though 
numbers  of  the  lower  order,  disaffected 
either  with  their  rulers  or  coldly  in- 
clined towards  their  Protestant  guides, 
enrolled  themselves  among  its  neophytes. 
Curiosity  drew  many  to  its  rites  ;  but 
their  attendance  or  support  were  uncer- 
tain. Enough  were  found  however  to 
encourage  the  priests  to  persevere  in 
their  mission.  The  bishop  returned  to 
France  in  1841,  having  first  provided 
for  the  erection  of  a  spacious  stone 
church  in  Honolulu,  to  procure  more 
laborers  in  his  field,  with  a  supply  of 
church  ornaments  and  the  gaudy  para- 
phernalia of  their  ritual,  on  which  so 
much  is  relied  to  attract  the  multitude. 
On  the  passage  back  with  a  company  of 
nuns  and  others  and  a  cargo  for  their 
mission,  the  vessel  foundered  at  sea 
and  all  perished.  In  the  meanwhile, 
his  brethren  found  much  source  of  corn- 
plaint  against  the  government,  particu- 
larly in  regard  ,to  the  school  laws  and 
the  marriage  contract,  which  was  a  civil 
institution.  The  priests  at  first  pre- 
sumed to  separate  and  re-marry  couples 
at  their  option,  and  their  partisans  de- 
clined contributing  their  quota  of  taxa- 
tion for  the  public  schools.  The  ill- 
blood  arising  from  past  sores  was  not 
yet  purified.  Both  parties  among  the 
lower  order  were  prone  to  collisions. 
The  Roman  Catholics  were  sustained 
in  their  seditious  views  by  the  belief 
that  France  would  support  them.  The 
French  consul  protested  against  any  re- 
straint on  the  internal  traffic  in  ardent 
|  spirits  by  way  of  licenses.  Affairs  \vere 
in  this  state,  when  on  the  23d  day  of 
August,  1842,  H.  M.  C.  M.'s  corvette 
Embuscade  arrived.  As  she  hove  in 
sight,  the  natiye  .converts  to  the  Ro- 
man creed  raised  the  cry,  "  ko  makou 
haku  e,"  there  is  our  master.  Captain 
Mallet,  without  exchanging  the  custom- 
ary salutes,  immediately  forwarded  a 


156 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


letter  to  the  king,  in  which  he  made 
several  arbitrary  demands. 

A  compliance  with  the  demands  of 
Captain  Mallet  would  have  been  con- 
trary to  the  laws,  and  rendered  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  party  independent  of  the 
king's  sovereignty.  The  answer  of  the 
king  was  courteous  and  dignified.  It 
so  far  satisfied  Captain  Mallet  that  he 
sailed  without  giving  further  trouble,  as- 
suring the  king  that  he  should  deliver 
his  letter  to  Admiral  Du  Petit  Thouars, 
who  might  be  expected  the  ensuing 
spring.  Whatever  designs  the  Admiral 
had  upon  the  Hawaiian  Islands  can  now 
only  be  conjectured.  Providence  so  or- 
dered events  that  the  French  from  this 
period,  sufficiently  occupied  in  establish- 
ing themselves  in  their  southern  pos- 
sessions, neglected  the  affairs  of  this 
kingdom  until  it  was  too  late  to  frame 
a  pretext  for  its  occupancy.  But  other 
agents  were  at  work  for  the  same  pur- 
pose. At  this  juncture  it  would  seem 
as  if  each  of  the  three  great  commercial 
nations,  fortuitously  through  their  naval 
agents  rather  than  by  any  preconcerted 
policy  at  home,  were  bent  upon  seiz- 
ing available  ports  in  the  Pacific  to  ex- 
tend their 'power  and  curb  that  of  their 
equally  ambitious  rivals.  The  United 
States,  through ;Commodore  Jones,  made 
a  sweep  upon  California ;  France,  by 
Admiral  Du  Petit  Thouars,  took  pos- 
session of  the  Marquesan  and  Society 
groups.  England,  not  to  be  behind  in 
the  race,  by  Lord  George  Paulet  pounced 
upon  the  Hawaiian  Islands. 


•CHAPTER  XII. 

Course  of  British  Consul — Appointment  of  Mr.  Richards 
to  office — 1838 — Political  state  of  the  nation — Consti- 
tution— 1840^Code  of  Laws — Temperance  Societies — 
Diplomacy  of  Charlton— Courts— Sir  George  Simpson 
-— Commissioners  appointed  to  Europe — 1842 — Grant 
of  lands  to  Ladd  &  Co.— Mr.  Judd  came  into  office- 
Reform  in  Treasury — Clandestine  departure  of  Charl- 
ton — Letter  to  the  King — Alexander  Simpson  appointed 
Consul  and  rejected — Charlton  dismissed — Simpson's 
intrigues  and  violence— Suit  of  Pelly  vs.  Charlton — 
Arrival  of  Lord  George  Paulet,  February,  1843— De- 
mands— Cession  of  the  Islands — British  Commission — 
Troubles— Withdrawal  of  the  King— U.  S  S.  Constel- 
lation— Admiral  Thomas — Restoration  of  the  Kingdom 
—Remarks  upon  the  Cession. 

BEFORE  proceeding  further  in  the 
course  of  political  events,  it  will  be  well 
to  retrace  our  steps  a  little,  and  show  to 
the  reader  the  different  stages  through 


I  which  the  government  became  involved 
I  in  those  difficulties  which  led  to  the 
j  seizure  of  the  islands  by  Lord  George 
j  Paulet.  Without  doubt  the  French, 
I  encouraged  by  misrepresentations  from 
j  interested  individuals,  desired  at  that 
I  period  to  do  by  them  as  they  afterwards 
j  did  by  Tahiti,  But  too  many  national 
interests  were  involved  and  the  islands 
j  were  too  valuable  for  them  to  succeed 
as  quietly  as  they  wished ;  so  they  turn- 
ed their  attention  to  fields  of  lesser  note. 
England,  with  highly  honorable  policy, 
has  ever  been  willing  that  these  islands 
should  rise  and  prosper  under  their  na- 
tive dynasty.  This  is  more  to  her 
credit,  from  the  fact  that  her  represent- 
ative, Mr.  Charlton,  had  ever  urged  a 
contrary  policy,  indirectly  if  not  directly, 
by  representing  the  native  rulers  as 
wholly  unfit  for  governing,  and  sedu- 
lously inculcating  the  sentiment  that 
they  were  subjects  of  Great  Britain.  On 
many  occasions,  he  treated  them  with 
indignity,  threatening  their  lives  and 
using  language  unpardonable  for  its  vio- 
lence and  unreasonableness.  In  the 
early  part  of  his  career  it  has  been  seen 
how  he,  impolitically  for  the  interests  of 
his  own  countrymen,  countenanced  the 
introduction  of  French  priests,  which 
finally  led  to  the  creation  of  an  adverse 
interest  that  well  nigh  gave  the  nation 
to  a  rival  power.  Perceiving  when  too 
late  the  direction  of  affairs  from  the  im- 
pulse he  had  given  them,  he  followed  in 
their  lead  by  raising  grievances  of  his 
own  which  he  confidently  hoped  would 
lead  to  the  active  interference  of  the 
British  government,  and  ultimately  to 
taking  possession  of  the  group.  To 
have  effected  this,  he  must  have  de- 
ceived not  only  his  own  government, 
but  blinded  the  rival  interests  of  France 
and  America.  Had  he  been  a  dispas- 
sionate, shrewd  man,  possibly  he  could 
have  effected  greater  injury  than  he  did; 
but  from  1833,  when  his  natural  char- 
acter was  so  forcibly  disclosed  by  lead- 
ing the  king  into  vicious  habits  to  the 
upsetting  of  order  and  morality,  his 
influence  had  been  on  the  wane.  Dis- 
appointed by  this  very  natural  conse- 
quence, he  zealously  lent  himself  to  the 
injury  of  the  nation,  opposing  all  that 
they  favored,  and  nourishing  every  case 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


which  could  generate  discord  or  involve 
the  rulers.  His  conduct  was  a  pitiable 
illustration  of  passion  without  reason, 
and  it  is  the  more  melancholy  to  refer 
to  it  as  its  effects  were  so  pernicious  for 
a  time  to  the  welfare  of  the  nation  and 
the  moral  tone  of  society.  His  official 
rank  alone  entitled  him  to  consideration 
and  gave  him  influence.  Without  it  he 
would  have  been  politically  harmless. 

Previous  to  the  appointment  of  the 
Rev.  Wm.  Richards,  July  3,  1838,  as 
chaplain,  teacher  and  translator  of  the 
government,  it  had  been  swayed  alter- 
nately by  missionary,  mercantile  and 
official  influences  brought  to  operate 
upon  it.  In  the  early  stages  of  the  in- 
fluence the  latter  had  often  the  advan- 
tage ;  but  later,  the  former  acquired  a 
paramount  influence,  though  Mr.  Rich- 
ards was  the  first  who  received  an  office 
and  title,  first  dissevering  himself  from 
the  mission  by  their  advice  and  consent. 
Under  these  modest  titles  his  influence 
on  the  foreign  policy  of  the  chiefs  be- 
came considerable,  and  in  it  he  was  sus- 
tained by  his  late  brethren.  The  sort 
of  influence  which  the  missionaries  held 
has  been  much  discussed.  It  is  im- 
possible to  ascertain  its  full  extent  as  it 
was  so  undefined.  That  it  was  great 
and  legitimately  acquired  and  sincerely 
used  for  the  good  of  the  people,  no  can- 
did person  who  has  made  himself  ac- 
quainted with  their  history  will  doubt. 
Each  missionary  was  generally  the 
friend  of  some  chief  living  in  his  neigh- 
borhood, and  over  whom  he  impercepti- 
bly acquired  that  influence  which  moral 
confidence  is  sure  to  engender,  so  that 
without  knowing  exactly  how  it  wras,  he 
felt  himself  powerful  in  his  little  field. 
The  missionaries  being  united  in  policy 
were  thus  enabled  to  affect  the  tone  of 
the  public  councils  through  the  voices 
of  their  individual  friends.  They  main- 
ly employed  this  influence  to  benefit 
the  people,  by  indoctrinating  them  with 
more  humane  views  towards  their  de- 
pendents and  juster  sentiments  of  their 
rights.  In  this  way  the  national  taxes, 
burdens  and  customs,  the  offspring  of 
despotic  heathenism,  became  vastly  ame- 
liorated, and  the  chiefs  themselves  ad- 
vanced to  some  degree  of  knowledge 
and  refinement.  The  missionaries  could 


157 


not  however  exercise  even  this  whole- 
some influence  without  subjecting  them- 
selves to  invidious  charges.  Hence  arose 
the  enmity  developed  in  the  political 
proceedings  given  in  the  previous  chap- 
ters. Mr.  Bingham  was  long  known  by 
the  soubriquet  of  "  King  Hiram."  But 
influence  was  not  confined  to  the  mis- 
sionaries alone.  It  was  acquired  by 
those  who  differed  widely  from  them 
on  the  same  principle  by  securing  the 
friendship  a«nd  confidence  of  individual 
chiefs  whose  tastes  were  congenial  with 
their  white  intimates.  But  these  were 
greatly  outnumbered  by  the  more  re- 
flective and  serious  class  with  the  all- 
powerful  Kaahumanu  at  their  head. 
Throughout  their  history  it  has  been 
found  that  whenever  the  spirit  of  license 
came  in  conflict  with  the  sense  of  right, 
the  former,  though  often  for  a  while 
ascendant,  in  the  end  invariably  suc- 
cumbed to  the  latter.  The  mission  and 
high  chiefs  formed  a  moral  bulwark  to 
the  nation  that  had  never  been  wholly 
cut  down,  but  has  arisen  firmer  and 
higher  after  every  assault. 

It  is  not  intended  by  this  description 
to  convey  the  impression  that  either  side 
were  wholly  right  or  wholly  wrong.  So 
long  as  the  missionaries  confined  their 
influences  to  purposes  wholly  within 
their  legitimate  sphere  of  action,  and  of 
which  they  were  by  profession  and  ex- 
perience the  best  qualified  to  judge,  all 
went  well.  But  when,  even  though  with 
the  best  intentions,  they  overstepped 
that  line,  they  failed — failed  through 
those  very  qualities  which  were  their 
own  passports  to  confidence.  In  honor- 
able, practical  business  men,  the  chiefs 
would  have  found  much  more  efficient 
advisers  in  purely  business  matters,  and 
it  is  now  much  to  be  regretted  that  the 
agency  of  such  had  not  been  earlier 
called  in,  when  they  were  in  doubt. 
But  the  implicit  faith  they  had  in  the 
intentions  of  their  religious  teachers  led 
to  an  equal  reliance  on  their  judgments; 
these  judgments  were  too  often  formed 
rather  through  the  medium  of  a  profess- 
ed common  faith  or  sanctity  than  through 
the  exercise  of  sound  reason  and  neces- 
sary caution.  A  plain  answer  from  a 
practical  business  man  of  good  prin- 
ciples, whether  he  was  a  brother  com- 


158 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


municant  or  not,  would  have  been  worth 
quires  of  sentimental  essays  on  pros- 
pective good  and  benevolence,  which 
were  to  find  their  dubious  way  to  the 
nation  by  first  lining  the  pockets  of  the 
projectors.  The  errors  into  which  the 
advisers  of  the  chiefs  not  unfrequently 
fell  were  very  natural,  but  very  lament- 
able. A  more  comprehensive  view  of 
the  selfishness  and  deceitfulness  of  hu- 
man nature  would  have  saved  them.  At 
all  events,  it  would  have  been  a  wise  pol- 
icy to  have  distrusted  sanguine  schemes 
whose  fate  depended  upon  profound  se- 
crecy even  from  those  who  were  to  be 
most  affected  by  their  success  or  failure, 
and  it  would  have  been  wiser  still  to 
have  offset  one  set  of  views,  whether 
mercantile  or  political,  by  an  appeal  to 
others,  and  thus  hit  upon  safety  by  a 
prudent  medium. 

In  another  sense  the  managing  parties 
were  right.  Deceived  they  might  be  in 
the  motives  and  character  of  their  pro- 
fessed friends,  yet  so  long  as  they  be- 
lieved them  sincere,  it  was  just  that  the 
countenance  should  have  been  mutual. 
The  fault  was  not  over-support  but  over- 
confidence. 

However,  governments,  like  mon,  ac- 
quire wisdom  by  dear  bought  experi- 
ence. It  has  been  thus  with  the  Ha- 
waiian. None  of  the  numerous  lessons 
from  friends  or  foes  have  been  lost  on 
them,  and  the  adversities  of  one  year 
have  added  to  the  wisdom  of  the  next. 
It  is  a  small  nation,  but  history  will 
develop  the  fact  that  it  is  hardening  its 
bones  and  sinews  by  a  process  analo- 
gous to  that  of  the  youth  who  leaves  his 
father's  house  with  but  little  in  the  out- 
set to  meet  the  rubs  of  active  selfish- 
ness save  an  honest  heart  and  a  docile 
disposition.  Sooner  or  later  the  fac- 
ulties develop,  and  the  incautious  boy 
ripens  into  the  experienced  man. 

Mr.  Richards  entered  upon  his  offi- 
cial duties  by  delivering  to  the  chiefs 
a  course  of  lectures  on  Political  Econ- 
omy and  the  general  science  of  govern- 
ment. From  the  ideas  thus  derived, 
based  upon  their  old  forms,  a  constitu- 
tion was  drawn  up.  Although  greatly 
limiting  their  power,  the  chiefs  passed 
it  unanimously. 

The  laws  of  the  kingdom  were  care- 


fully revised  and  published.  In  com- 
parison with  the  past,  the  progress  of 
the  nation  was  now  rapid.  The  liberal 
policy  of  other  nations,  and  whatever  of 
their  forms  could  with  propriety  be  here 
transplanted,  were  embodied  in  the  new 
statutes,  but  on  a  scale  commensurate 
with  the  feebleness  and  youth  of  the 
people.  The  penal  code  was  greatly 
improved  ;  primary  and  courts  of  ap- 
peal established;  the  jury  system  adopt- 
ed. Provision  was  made  for  the  more 
regular  enforcement  of  debt — transmis- 
sion of  property,  property  in  trust,  in- 
terest accounts,  in  short  sufficient  was 
done  greatly  to  benefit  the  position  of 
natives  and  foreigners.  Taxation  was 
rendered  more  equal  and  lighter.  En- 
couragement was  proffered  to  industry 
and  to  the  increase  of  population.  An 
enlightened  public  school  system  was 
organized.  Their  laws,  imperfect  as 
they  may  seem  to  the  critical  eyes  of 
a  superior  civilization,  were  yet  in  ad- 
vance of  the  people.  But  wherever  they 
were  allowed  to  operate  fairly  and  sys- 
tematically much  good  was  effected,  and 
they  served  to  prepare  the  way  for  more 
important  changes. 

The  people  were  thoroughly  con- 
vinced that  the  immunity  once  claimed 
by  chiefs  for  crimes  of  their  own,  was  at 
an  end  by  an  impartial  trial  by  jury  of 
one  of  that  class  in  1840,  for  the  mur- 
der of  his  wife.  He  with  an  accomplice 
were  both  brought  in  guilty,  and  suffer- 
ed the  full  penalty  of  the  law,  death  by 
hanging.  The  foreigners  also  began  to 
see  that  there  was  some  virtue  in  the 
courts,  by  a  fine  imposed  upon  the  Eng- 
lish consul  for  riotous  conduct. 

The  results  of  the  Laplace  treaty  in 
removing  the  prohibition  of  ardent  spir- 
its were  not  so  pernicious  to  the  nation 
as  was  first  anticipated.  The  immediate 
effect  was  bad.  Natives  of  both  sexes 
were  seen  reeling  through  the  streets. 
But  so  much  moral  sentiment  \vas 
brought  to  operate,  that  the  government 
prohibited  the  natives  from  manufactur- 
ing ardent  spirits,  and  finally  the  king 
and  chiefs,  in  the  spring  of  1S42,  de- 
stroyed what  store  they  had  on  hand, 
and  pledged  themselves  to  total  absti- 
nence. Numerous  temperance  societies 
were  formed  and  considerable  enthusiasm 


HISTORY   OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


159 


awakened  on  the  subject.  The  pledges 
have  in  general  been  kept.  The  king 
and  court  continued  strictly  temperate, 
and  the  rules  of  government  visit  prompt 
penalty  and  disgrace  upon  any  of  their 
officers  found  guilty  of  violating  their 
pledge. 

While  the  nation  was  thus  advancing 
in  moral  improvement  and  respectabil- 
ity, the  government  experienced  con- 
stant annoyance  from  the  arrogance  and 
pretensions  of  Mr.  Charlton,  whd  was 
evidently  concerting  a  collision  between 
it  and  his  own.  The  most  frivolous  com- 
plaints were  willingly  received,  judged 
upon  and  made  subjects  of  threats,  be- 
fore they  had  been  referred  to  the  proper 
tribunals  or  one  word  elicited  in  reply. 
In  effect,  he  centered  in  himself  at  once, 
prosecutor,  witness,  judge  and  sheriff. 

The  courts  of  the  country  were  con- 
stituted upon  the  best  basis  its  means 
allowed.  In  ordinary  mercantile  cases, 
with  the  aid  of  foreign  juries,  where  no 
national  prejudices  were  involved  or 
party  interests  at  stake,  they  gave  sat- 
isfaction. But  in  the  struggle  that  was 
constantly  going  on  between  the  rival 
interests  of  England  and  America — the 
one  represented  by  Mr.  Charlton,  and 
virulently  opposed  to  the  government, 
and  the  other  by  the  United  States  con- 
sul, Mr.  Brinsmade,  who  willingly,  with 
most  of  his  countrymen  *  lent  it  efficient 
moral  aid  by  complying  with  the  laws, 
and  treating  its  feeble  endeavors  to  sus- 
tain order  and  promote  civilization  with 
respect — the  nation  through  its  courts 
suffered  repeated  assaults. 

Mr.  Brinsmade's  predecessor,  J.  C. 
Jones,  had  been  in  the  habit  when  of- 
fended of  applying  the  epithets  cheat, 
liar  and  other  equally  indecorous  terms 
to  the  chiefs. 

Complicated  law  suits  arose,  in  which 
the  principals  were  American  and  Eng- 
lish. The  decision  of  the  governor  of 
Oahu,  its  constitutional  judge,  being  ad- 
verse to  the  English  party,  greatly  em- 
bittered them.  The  involved  estate  of 
French  and  Greenway  became  another 
bone  of  contention,  two  Englishmen 
claiming  to  act  as  assignees,  neither  of 
whom  were  recognized  by  one  of  the 
principals,  the  other  being  insane,  nor  by 
the  other  creditors.  The  parties  brought 


their  cases  into  the  court,  where  they 
were  decided  unfavorably  to  the  claims 
of  the  self-styled  assignees.  These  cases 
are  merely  referred  to  as  having  given 
rise  to  questions  of  jurisdiction,  and  be- 
ing some  of  many  others  which  after 
having  led  to  the  seizure  of  the  group 
by  Lord  George  Paulet,  were  decided 
upon  in  England  by  the  law  adviser  of 
the  crown  in  favor  of  the  king. 

In  the  spring  of  1842,  Sir  George 
Simpson  and  Dr.  McLaughlin,  govern- 
ors in  the  service  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company,  arrived  at  the  islands.  Hav- 
ing extensive  mercantile  relations  on 
them,  they  naturally  felt  interested  in 
the  stability  of  the  government  and  its 
institutions.  After  a  careful  and  candid 
examination  into  the  merits  of  the  exist- 
ing controversies  between  their  own 
countrymen  and  the  native  government, 
they  came  to  the  full  determination  of 
sustaining  the  latter  with  their  powerful 
influence.  Their  agents  were  instruct- 
ed accordingly.  The  king  fearing  the 
effect  of  the  false  representations  of 
Charlton  and  his  partisans,  sought  the 
counsel  of  Sir  George  Simpson,  by  whose 
advice  and  pecuniary  assistance  in  a  loan 
of  £10,000,  it  was  decided  to  send  com- 
missioners to  Europe  and  the  United 
States,  with  full  powers  to  negotiate  for 
an  acknowledgment  of  the  independ- 
ence of  the  islands,  and  a  guarantee 
against  their  usurpation  by  any  of  the 
great  powers.  Recognized  as  an  inde- 
pendent nation,  they  would  be  freed 
from  many  vexatious  interferences  in 
their  domestic  polity,  and  questions  of 
jurisdiction,  which  served  no  other  end 
than  to  gratify  evil  passions  and  postpone 
justice.  Mr.  Brinsmade,  the  American 
consul,  had  left  some  months  previous, 
on  business  of  his  firm — Ladd  &  Co. — 
carrying  with  him  an  extensive  contract 
for  grants  and  leases  of  lands  under  cer- 
tain conditions,  entered  into  with  them, 
in  November,  1840,  by  the  king.  On 
the  strength  of  this  he  proposed  to  get 
up  a  joint  stock  company,  which  should 
develop  the  resources  of  the  islands. 
Unless  however  the  governments  of 
Great  Britain,  France  and  the  United 
States  "acknowledged  the  sovereignty 
of  the  Sandwich  Islands  government 
and  accord  to  it  all  the  rights,  powers 


160 


HISTORY  OF  TEE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


and  privileges  and  immunities  of  an  in- 
dependent state,"  the  said  contract  was 
to  be  "null  and  void."  Mr.  Brinsmade 
thus  bound  himself  to  see  this  object 
secured  previous  to  selling  his  contract. 

The  after  history  of  this  agency  in 
Europe  proved  a  lesson  to  the  govern- 
ment not  to  involve  itself  under  any 
pretences  or  hopes  with  the  private 
schemes  or  speculations  of  mercantile 
firms.  Ladd  &  Co.  had  been  service- 
able to  the  islands  in  being  the  first  to 
introduce  agricultural  enterprises  on  an 
enlarged  and  systematic  scale,  by  which 
the  industry  of  the  inhabitants  was 
awakened  and  the  resources  of  the 
country  developed.  Their  sugar  plan- 
tation at  Koloa,  Kauai,  was  creditable 
to  their  enterprise,  and  had  been  the 
means  of  giving  a  start  to  the  produc- 
tion of  sugar  at  several  other  points. 
Perceiving  the  real  advantages  derived 
to  the  country  from  this  enterprise,  and 
feeling  desirous  of  sustaining  and  en- 
larging it,  the  government  put  Ladd  §c 
Co.  at  their  solicitation,  based  upon  the 
idea  that  their  views  were  philanthropic, 
into  possession  of  the  contract  before 
mentioned.  They  also  advanced  them 
large  sums  without  a  sufficient  exam- 
ination into  their  credit ;  a  neglect  aris- 
ing from  over-weening  confidence,  and 
which  afterwards,  failing  to  get  their 
pay  when  due,  proved  very  vexatious  in 
the  results.  But  previous  to  the  con- 
tract, other  sums  had  been  loaned  them. 
The  knowledge  of  these  facts  naturally 
excited  the  jealousy  of  the  English  op- 
position. 

Sir  George  Simpson,  Rev.  William 
.Richards  and  Timoteo  Haalilio,  a  native 
ehief,  were  appointed  joint  commission- 
ers to  proceed  to  the  United  States  and 
Europe.  Sir  George  Simpson  left  im- 
mediately. The  other  two  sailed  in 
July,  1842,  for  Mazatlan,  whence  they 
proceeded  direct  to  the  United  States. 
G.  P.  Judd,  physician  to  the  American 
Mission,  long  and  intimately  acquainted 
with  the  chiefs,  was  invited  by  them  to 
supply  Mr.  Richards'  place,  acting  as 
recorder  and  translator.  Upon  this  oc- 
casion the  mission  passed  the  following 
vote  : 

"That  as  Dr.  Judd  has  resigned  his  connection  with 
the  mission,  we  therefore  express  to  him  our  high  esti- 
mation, of  lus  past  services,  and  affectionately  request 


him  to  co-operate  with  us  in  furthering  all  the  grand  ob- 
j  cts  of  the  mission,  so  far  &a  he  can  consistently  with 
his  new  engagements." 

Mr.  Judd  was  further  appointed  Pres- 
ident of  the  Treasury  Board,  and  to  cor- 
respond with  the  commissioners  abroad. 
Upon  assuming  the  duties  of  the  treas- 
ury, he  immediately  introduced  a  system 
of  reform,  which  by  husbanding  the 
financial  resources  redeemed  the  credit 
of  the  government.  Previous  to  his  ad- 
vent into  office,  the  sums  collected  were 
received  by  the  governors,  tax-officers 
and  chiefs,  and  expended  very  much  at 
their  option  without  accountability  of 
any  kind.  It  was  a  system  useless  to 
the  nation  and  expensive  in  its  results. 
Under  it  any  amount  of  peculation  pre- 
vailed, though  with  the  ideas  of  the 
chiefs  it  could  scarcely  be  called  by  that 
term,  as  they  all  claimed  the  right  to 
help  themselves  from  the  public  crib. 
In  its  stead  a  rigid  economy  was  exact- 
ed. Books  were  opened  ;  revenues  col- 
lected and  deposited  in  the  treasury ; 
accounts  kept  with  all  public  officers  ; 
useless  mouths  cut  off;  services  alone 
were  paid  for ;  salaries  established  ;  the 
public  debts  made  up ;  national  property 
distinguished  from  individual ;  in  short, 
a  system  admirably  calculated  to  gain 
the  confidence  of  the  community  and  to 
benefit  the  nation  arose  out  of  the  con- 
fusion and  bankruptcy  that  prevailed 
before.  This  was  not  done  without 
murmuring  or  discontent  from  those 
whose  sinecure  offices  were  now  at  an 
end.  But  the  perseverence  of  Mr.  Judd 
triumphed  over  all  obstacles,  and  the 
statistics  of  the  treasury  since  have  told 
a  flattering  story. 

In  September,  1842,  Mr.  Charlton, 
fearing  the  results  of  the  embassy  of 
Messrs.  Haalilio  and  Richards  upon  his 
own  office,  left  his  consulate  surrepti- 
tiously for  London  via  Mexico,  to  lay 
his  complaints  before  the  British  gov- 
ernment. Mr.  Alexander  Simpson,  his 
friend  and  appointed  successor,  says  of 
him  in  his  history  of  these  events,  "  he 
did  not  possess  the  qualifications  neces- 
sary for  a  diplomatist — coolness,  discre- 
tion and  an  abstinence  from  party  heats 
and  personal  animosities." 

Mr.  Charlton's  career  was  terminated 
by  his  own  act.  He  had  no  sooner  ar- 
rived in  London  than  he  was  removed 


HISTORY  OF  TEE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


161 


from  his  situation  under  circumstances 
of  disgrace.  The  Earl  of  Aberdeen 
considered  the  finale  of  his  diplomacy 
as  intemperate,  improper  and  ill-judged, 
calculated  to  do  great  mischief  and  to 
produce  in  the  minds  of  the  king  and  his 
advisers,  whether  natives  or  foreigners, 
a  resentful  feeling  not  only  against  Mr. 
Charlton,  but  against  the  British  gov- 
ernment and  their  subjects.  These  sen- 
timents are  authentic,  and  clearly  show 
that  it  was  no  part  of  the  policy  of 
England  that  her  commissioned  officers 
should  insult  even  Hawaiian  majesty. 

The  king  declined  receiving  Alex- 
ander Simpson  as  vice-consul.  The 
grounds  of  his  refusal,  in  the  words  of 
his  officer  addressed  to  him,  "were  be- 
cause you  despise  the  authorities  of  the 
kingdom  and  say  you  are  going  to  make 
disturbance  in  the  kingdom."  Mr.  Simp- 
son fully  justifies  the  king  in  believing 
him  to  be  a  seditious  character  in  his 
own  work,  where  he  states,  "  From  the 
period  of  my  first  visit  to  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  1  became  convinced  of  their 
value  and  importance,  and,  therefore, 
desirous  that  they  should  form  a  British 
possession" 

Mr.  Simpson  immediately  called  a 
meeting  of  the  favorers  of  his  views, 
who  passed  a  resolution  favorable  to  his 
exercising  the  duties  of  consul,  which 
he  continued  to  do,  unnoticed  by  other 
consuls  and  unsanctioned  by  the  king. 

His  ambition  being  to  make  the  isl- 
ands an  appendage  of  the  British  crown, 
he  industriously  fomented  difficulties 
and  devised  means  to  effect  this  favorite 
project.  Through  his  influence,  memo- 
rials purporting  to  come  from  British 
residents,  but  notoriously  signed  by  in- 
dividuals of  no  note,  were  forwarded  to 
his  government. 

At  this  time,  Mr.  Pelly,  agent  of  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company,  instituted  a  suit 
for  nearly  £3,000  against  Mr.  Charlton, 
for  a  debt  due  parties  in  Valparaiso  since 
1832.  The  case  was  brought  before  a 
foreign  jury  and  a  verdict  given  against 
Mr.  Charlton,  whose  property  was  at- 
tached by  order  of  the  court  for  payment. 

On  his  way  to  England,  Mr.  Charlton 

had  fallen  in  with  Lord  George  Paulet, 

commanding  H.  B.  M.  frigate  Carysfort, 

and  by  his  representations  interested  his 

21 


lordship  in  his  views.  Simpson  had 
also  sent  despatches  to  the  coast  of 
Mexico,  which  induced  Hear  Admiral 
Thomas  to  order  the  Carysfort  to  Hono- 
lulu, for  the  purpose  of  inquiring  into 
the  matter.  She  arrived  on  the  10th 
of  February,  1843,  before  the  sale  of 
Charlton's  property  had  taken  place. 
Simpson  immediately  went  on  board  to 
concert  measures  with  Lord  George, 
who,  from  his  entire  acquiescence  in  his 
plans,  appears  to  have  been  wholly  won 
over  at  this  interview  to  sustain  them. 
The  authorities  on  shore  suspected  there 
was  no  friendly  feeling,  from  the  with- 
holding the  usual  salutes.  Mr.  Judd,  on 
behalf  of  the  government,  made  an  offi- 
cial call  on  board,  but  was  informed  he 
could  not  be  received.  Visits  from  the 
French  and  United  States  consuls  were 
similarly  declined.  Captain  Paulet  ad- 
dressed the  governor,  informing  him  that 
he  wished  to  confer  with  the  king,  who 
was  then  absent. 

The  king  arrived  from  Maui  on  the 
16th,  and  on  the  next  day  received  the 
following  letter  and  demands  from  Lord 
George  Paulet : 

H.  B.  M.'s  SHIP  CARYSFORT,         J 
OAHU,  17th  February,  1843.  £ 

SIR  : — In  answer  to  your  letter  of  this  day's  date — 
which  1  have  too  good  an  opinion  of  your  Majesty  to 
allow  me  to  believe  ever  emanated  from  yourself,  but  from 
your  ill-advisers — I  have  to  state  that  I  shall  hold  no 
communication  whatever  with  Dr.  G.  P.  Judd,  who  it 
has  been  satisfactorily  proved  to  me  has  been  the  punic 
mover  in  the  unlawful  proceedings  of  your  government 
against  British  subjects 

As  you  have  refused  me  a  personal  interview.  I  en- 
close you  the  demands  which  I  consider  It  my  duty  to 
make  upon  your  government  ;  with  which  I  demand  a 
compliance  at  or  before  4  o'clock,  P.  M,,  to-morrow — 
Saturday — otherwise  I  shall  be  obliged  to  take  imme- 
diate coercive  steps  to  obtain  these  measures  for  my 
countrymen. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be  your  Majesty's  most  obedient, 
humble  servant, 

GEORGE  PAULET,  Captain. 
His  Majesty,  KAMEHAMEHA  III. 

DEMANDS  MADE  BY  THE  BIGHT  HONORABLE  LOBD 
GKOBOE  PAULET,  CAPTAIN  ROYAL  .NAVY,  COMMAND- 
ING H.  B.  M.'s  SHIP  CABYSFOKT,UPON  THE  KING  OF 
THE  SANDWICH  ISLANDS. 

First.  The  immediate  removal,  by  public  advertise- 
ment, written  in  the  native  and  English  language?, 
and  signed  by  the  governor  of  this  island  and  F.  W. 
Thompson,  of  the  attachment  placed  upon  Mr.  Charl- 
ton's property ;  the  restoration  of  the  land  taken  by 
government  for  its  own  use,  and  really  appertaining 
to  Mr..  Charlton ;  and  reparation  for  the  heavy  loss  to 
which  Mr.  Charlton's  representatives  have  been  ex- 
posed by  the  oppressive  and  unjust  proceedings  of  the 
(Sandwich.  Islands  government. 

Second.  The  immediate  acknowledgment  of  the 
right  of  Mr.  Simpson  to  perform  the  functions  dele- 
gated to  him  by  Mr.  Charlton  ;  namely,  those  of  Her 
Britannic  Majesty's-  acting  consul,  until  Her  Majesty's 
pleasure  be  known  upon  the  reasonableness  of  your 
objections  to  him.  The  acknowledgment  of  that  right 
and  the  reparation  for  the  insult  olfered  to  Her  Maj- 
esty through  her  acting  representative,  to  be  made  by 


162 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


a  public  reception  of  his  commission  and  the  saluting 
the  British  flag  with  twenty-one  guns,  which  number 
will  be  returned  by  Her  Britannic  Majesty's  ship  under 
iny  command. 

Third.  A  guarantee  that  no  British  subject  shall 
in  future  be  subjected  to  imprisonment  in  fetters,  un- 
less he  is  accused  of  a  crime  which  by  the  laws  of  Eng- 
land would  be  considered  felony. 

Fourth.  The  compliance  with  a  written  promise 
given  by  King  Kamehameha  to  Captain  Jones,  of  Her 
Britannic  Majesty's  ship  Curacoa,  that  a  new  and  fair 
trial  would  be  granted  in  a  case  brought  by  Henry 
Skinner,  which  promise  has  been  evaded. 

Fifth.  The  immediate  adoption  of  firm  steps  to  ar- 
range the  matters  in  dispute  between  British  subjects 
and  natives  of  the  country,  or  others  residing  here, 
by  referring  these  cases  to  juries.  One-half  of  whom 
shall  be  British  subjects,  approved  by  the  consul,  and 
all  of  whom  shall  declare  on  oath,  their  freedom  from 
prejudgment  upon,  or  interest  in  the  cases  brought 
before  them. 

Sixth.  A  direct  communication  between  His  Maj- 
esty Kamehameha  and  Her  Britannic  Majesty,  acting 
consul,  for  the  immediate  settlement  of  all  "cases  of 
grievances  and  complaint  on  the  part  of  British  sub- 
jects against  the  Sandwich  Island  Government. 

JJated  on  board  H.  B.  M.'s  ship  Carysfort,  at  Oahu, 


indoctrination  of  the  mission,  animated 
by  the  peaceful  principles  of  the  Gospel, 
had  been  of  that  nature  that  depends 
more  upon  the  sword  of  the  spirit  than 
the  arm  of  flesh.  Desirous  of  avoiding 
the  unhappy  consequences  of  strife  and 
bloodshed,  and  relying,  through  Prov- 
idence, on  the  justice  of  the  nation's 
cause  and  the  magnanimity  of  the  Queen 
of  Great  Britain,  they  counseled  peace. 
Shortly  before  the  hour  of  commencing 
hostilities  had  arrived,  the  king  dispatch- 
ed a  letter  to  the  Carysfort,  informing 
Lord  George  Faulet  that  he  yielded  to 
his  demands,  under  protest,  and  had  ap- 
pointed Sir  George  Simpson  and  Wil- 

this  nth  day  of  February,  1S43. '  '  I  ^  ^ichards  as  his  commissioners  to 

GEORGE  PAULET,  Captain.     !  the  court  oi  trreat  .Britain  to  settle  the 
Captain  Long,  of  the  United  States   pending  difficulties. 

ship  Boston,  then  in  port,  was  informed,  |  His  majesty  appointed  February  20th, 
by  letter,  at  midnight,  of  the  anticipated  j  at  eleven  o'clock,  A.  M.,  to  receive  Lord 
attack  of  the  British  commander.  In  the  George  and  the  vice-consul.  On  the 


morning  the  Carysfort  was  cleared  for 
action,  springs  put  on  her  cables,  and 
her  battery  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
town.  The  English  families  embarked 
for  security  on  board  a  brig  in  the  outer 
roads.  The  Americans  and  other  for- 
eigners having  but  short  notice,  placed 
their  funds  and  papers  on  board  the 
Boston  and  other  vessels,  intending  to 
retreat  to  them  with  their  families  in 
case  of  actual  hostilities.  The  town 


same  day  that  the  king  notified  Lord 
George  of  his  acquiescence  to  his  de- 
mands, in  conjunction  with  the  premier 
he  protested  against  his  acts  in  these 
words  : 

WE,  KAMEHAMEHA  III.,  King  of  all  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  and  KEKAULCOHI,  Premier  thereof,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  laws  of  nations,  and  the  rights  of  all  ag- 
grieved Sovereigns  and  individuals,  do  hereby  enter 
our  solemn  act  of  protest  before  God,  the  world,  and 
before  the  Government  of  Her  Most  Gracious  Majesty, 
Victoria,  Queen  of  the  United  Kingdoms  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  : 


forced  by  a  threat  of  coercive  measures,  and  an  attack 
upon  our  town  of  Honolulu,  in  case  of  a  non-compli- 
ance with  the  same  within  a  period  of  nineteen  hours ; 
thereby  interfering  -with  our  laws,  endangering  the 


Against  the  Right  Hon.  Lord  George  Paulet,  Cap- 
.~in  of  H.  B.  M.'s  ship  Carysfort,  now  lying  in  the 
Was  in  a  State  Of  great  excitement.  The  |  harbor  of  Honolulu,  for  all  losses  and  damages  which 
j-  •.•  r  ±U  U*f  -~*  *  may  accrue  to  us,  and  to  the  citizens  of  o<  her  countries 

dispositions  Ot  the  Chiefs  Were  Uncertain,     residing  under  our  dominion  and  sovereignty,  in  con- 
and    it   Was    feared   that   the    rabble,  tak-    sequence  of  the  unjust  demands  made  upon  us  this 
.,     ,  ,.      .  '   .    ,        day,  by  the  said  Right  Hon.  Lord  George  Paulet,  en- 

ing  advantage  oi  the  confusion,  might    " 
pillage  the  place.     Excited  by  the  gross 
injustice  of  the  demands,  the  first  im- 

Ji  c    ,1        i  •  i    i  •  -i      •      I  good  order  of  society,  and  requmng  ot  us  what  no 

pulses    of  the    king    and    hlS    council,    in  I  power  has  a  right  to  exact  of  another  with  whom  they 

which  they  were  sustained  by  the  indig- 
nant  feeling  of  the  entire  foreign  popu? 
lation,  excepting  the  few  who  sided  with 
Simpson,  were  for  energetic  measures. 
Arms  were  procured,  and  bodies  of  rnen 
began  to  assemble.  The  common  na- 
tives, unconscious  of  the  fatal  effects  of 
disciplined  gunnery,  ardently  desired  to 
fight  the  ship.  Some  supposed  they 


might  overpower  her  crew  by  numbers 


the  Savereign  authority  of  these  our  islands,  are  in- 
jured, grieved,  abused  and  damaged,  by  this  act  of  the 
said  Right  Hon.  Lord  George  Paulet,  and  we  hereby 
enter  our  solemn  appeal  unto  the  Government  of  Her 
Most  Gracious  Majesty,  represented  by  him,  for  re- 
dress, for  justification,  and  for  repayment  of  all  said 
losses,  damages  and  payments  which  may  in  conse- 
quence accrue  unto  us,  or  unto  the  citizens  of  other 
countries  living  under  our  jurisdiction 

On  the  20th,  the  king  and   premier 
visited  the  Carysfort  and  were  received 


with  royal  honors.     This  courtesy,  how- 


in  boarding.     But  peaceful  councils  at  !  ever,   was    but  a  prelude    to  a  further 
last  prevailed.     It  is  in  such  emergen-   series  of  demands  rendered  necessary  to 


cies  that  the  real  influence  of  the  mis- 
sionaries  becomes  apparent.  The  nat- 
ural  desire  of  chiefs  and  foreigners  was 
to  resist  at  all  hazards  ;  but  the  entire 


accomplish  Simpson's  aim,  by  the  unex 
pected  compliance  of  the  king  with  the 
first.  These  were  brought  forward  at 
an  interview  on  the  following  day.  The 


HISTORY   OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


163 


total  amount  demanded  in  money  was 
SI  17,330.89.  The  character  of  these 
claims,  and  the  object  of  the  parties, 
may  be  gathered  from  a  brief  notice  of 
the  first  brought  forward.  This  was  in 
favor  of  a  Mr.  Skinner,  a  connexion  of 
Mr.  Charlton's.  Indemnification  to  the 
amount  of  $3,000  was  demanded  for 
him  on  the  alleged  ground  of  having 
lost  the  interest  and  profits  on  $  10,000 
unemployed  for  four  months,  which  he 
had  reserved  to  purchase  the  property  of 
Mr.  Charlton,  if  sold  on  execution.  The 
arrival  of  the  Carysfort  had  stopped  the 
sale,  and  he  had  lost  the  opportunity  of 
thus  employing  his  funds. 

The  peculiar  nature  of  the  official  in- 
tercourse of  the  British  officers  with  the 
king,  is  best  illustrated  by  extracts  from 
a  journal  of  the  interviews  kept  at  the 
time  on  behalf  of  the  native  government. 

"February  22d. — Simpson  insisted  the 
Dominis  case  should  be  re-tried.  No 
plea  that  it  had  been  done,  and  that  the 
parties  had  settled  and  passed  receipts, 
was  to  be  admitted.  The  government 
must  plead  the  case,  and  pay  all  that 
a  jury  should  bring  in  over  the  $10,000 
which  had  been  paid  by  Captain  Dom- 
inis to  Mr.  Skinner. 

"Next,  a  claim  of  $400  for  a  chro- 
nometer, alleged  to  have  been  detain- 
ed by  the  harbor  master,  an  American, 
(which  he  denied,)  and  in  consequence 
Mr.  Skinner  had  to  purchase  another. 
The  king  said  he  was  not  acquainted 
with  the  facts.  This  was  considered  an 
acknowledgment  of  his  incompetence  to 
be  sovereign. 

"A  demand  that  either  Kekuanaoa  or 
Dr.  Judd  be  set  aside  as  the  author  of  a 
falsehood." 

"  Next,  a  detailed  account  of  the  legal 
proceedings  against  Simpson  and  Skin- 
ner, and  the  blame  thrown  on  the  gov- 
ernor and  the  courts."  The  king  said 
he  was  not  acquainted  with  the  facts  in 
the  case.  This  was  denounced  as  a 
strange  neglect,  and  no  statement  to  the 
contrary  could  be  admitted.  "  Insisted 
on  the  immediate  reversal  of  the  decis- 
ion of  the  courts.  The  king  must  do  it. 
He  ought  to  know  the  merits  of  the  case. 
He  must  pay  damages."  The  object  of 
Simpson,  to  drive  the  king  to  despair  by 
the  magnitude  and  unreasonableness  of 


his  demands,  was  fast  gaining  ground. 
Still  it  was  acknowledged,  and  is  on 
record,  that  previous  to  the  last  act  in 
this  semi-tragical  drama,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  obtain  the  official  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  king  to  all  the  pecuniary 
claims  he  brought  forward  in  his  own 
behalf  and  those  of  his  interested  sup- 
porters. Should  the  government  be 
transferred  previous  to  this,  they  would 
be  as  valueless  as  they  were  unjust, 
which  afterwards  proved  to  be  the  case, 
as  all  previous  complaints  were  quashed, 
and  no  British  subject  allowed  to  bring 
a  grievance  against  the  new  government. 
By  this  course  Simpson  was  converting 
what  under  any  circumstances  would 
have  been  an  unjustifiable  robbery,  into 
contemptible  swindling.  In  his  eager- 
ness he  overshot  the  mark,  though  not 
before  he  had  intimidated  the  king  into 
ratifying  a  claim  which  Charlton  had 
set  up  on  the  strength  of  an  alleged 
deed  from  Kalaimoku,  in  1826,  to  a  val- 
uable portion  of  the  town  of  Honolulu, 
near  the  water  side,  then  covered  with 
native  houses,  and  partially  owned  and 
built  upon  by  foreigners.  This  pretend- 
ed deed  had  been  kept  in  abeyance  for 
more  than  twenty  years,  unheard  of  by 
chiefs,  and  not  brought  forward  until 
long  after  the  alleged  signer  and  wit- 
nesses were  dead.  By  the  unanimous 
testimony  of  natives  and  foreigners, 
Charlton  was  never  considered  as  hav- 
ing owned  one  foot  of  this  land.  The 
adjoining  property,  separated  by  a  street, 
although  given  to  the  English  govern- 
ment, by  the  order  of  Kaahumanu,  in. 
1S26,  was  still  in  his  undisturbed  pos- 
session. The  land  to  which  he  now  laid 
claim  belonged,  by  the  most  undoubted 
testimony  and  by  continuous  possession, 
to  Kaahumanu  and  her  heirs.  Kalai- 
moku, the  alleged  granter,  had  never 
owned  it.  More  than  one  hundred  na- 
tives had  lived  on  it  ever  since  Charlton 
came  to  the  islands.  Yet  in  face  of 
these  well-known  facts,  Lord  George 
sustained  this  claim,  and  through  fear 
of  an  attack  upon  his  town,  induced  the 
king  to  sign  the  more  than  doubtful 
paper.  For  even  those  who  conjectured 
that  the  signatures  might  be  genuine, 
were  far  from  supposing  that  the  deed 
was  valid,  as  it  pretended  to  no  consid- 


164 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


eration,  its  boundaries  were  dubious,  the 
circumstances  under  which  it  appeared 
were  suspicious,  and  none  believed  that 
Kalaimoku  ever  signed  such  a  document 
with  a  knowledge  of  its  contents.  It  was 
contrary  both  to  his  habits  and  power. 
The  weakness  of  the  king  in  consenting 
to  a  ratification  of  such  a  fraud  upon 
his  territory  is  lamentable ;  being  wrong 
in  itself,  no  considerations  of  force  or 
threats  should  have  availed.  But  it  was 
done,  and  a  most  fruitful  diplomatic  sore 
has  it  since  proved  between  England 
and  this  country.  The  journal  of  this 
period,  kept  by  Mr.  Judd,  so  fully  illus- 
trates the  policy  which  brought  the 
country  into  the  hands  of  England,  that 
I  quote  largely  from  it,  as  the  most  au- 
thentic record  extant  of  the  actual  feel- 
ings and  dispositions  of  the  king  and 
chiefs,  and  the  various  motives  operating 
upon  their  minds.  It  is  a  humilitating 
confession  of  weakness,  and  cannot  fail 
to  enlist  the  sympathies  of  readers.  Suf- 
ficient firmness  was  wanting  to  give  a 
decided  refusal  to  the  treacherous  de- 
mands of  Simpson.  Whether  force 
would  then  have  been  used  is  doubtful. 
If  it  had,  the  unauthorized  acts  of  Lord 
Paulet  would  have  been  purely  piratical; 
and  on  whomsoever  the  evil  might  have 
fallen,  the  disgrace  would  have  been 
solely  his.  Expediency,  and  the  fear  of 
the  consequences  were  English  blood 
shed  and  the  rabble  let  loose  upon  the 
town,  decided  the  question.  Aided  by 
the  advice  they  most  confided  in,  which 
was  of  a  missionary  nature,  the  chiefs 
chose  what  they  considered  the  more 
prudent  measure.  It  savored  somewhat 
of  impotent  despair  on  the  part  of  the 
king  and  premier,  that  if  they  would 
avoid  Sylla  they  must  rush  upon  Cha- 
ry bdis — 'save  themselves  from  France  by 
giving  themselves  to  England. 

"•24^. — A  meeting  having  been  ar- 
ranged for  10  o'clock,  A.  M.,  the  king 
requested  me  to  visit  Lord  George,  and 
say  to  him  that  he  could  bear  this  course 
no  longer;  he  would  give  up  and  let 
them  do  as  they  pleased,  etc.,  etc.  I  ac- 
cordingly met  Lord  George  and  Simp- 
son in  the  street,  coming  to  the  meeting; 
said  I  had  a  message  from  the  king,  that 
he  was  sick.  I  went  with  them  to  the 
consular  office,  where  I  was  left  alone 


|  with  Simpson.  I  said,  the  king  feels 
himself  oppressed,  broken  down,  ruined, 
and,  to  use  his  own  expression,  a  dead 
man;  that  he  had  been  up  all  night,  and 
was  sick ;  that  he  had  determined  to 
give  up ;  that  if  he,  Simpson,  persisted 
in  his  present  course,  ruin  would  follow; 
that  the  king  could  not  undo  by  his  own 
act  the  action  of  the  courts,  and  enforce 
these  claims  without  time  to  modify  the 
laws.  I  begged  him  to  desist,  and  give 
time  to  modify  the  laws  and  act  with 
consistency.  He  would  allow  juries  to 
be  composed  of  half  Englishmen  in  case 
their  interests  were  concerned.  The 
Dominis  case  had  been  disposed  of  ac- 
cording to  the  king's  written  promise  to 
Captain  Jones.  Moreover,  since  that 
time,  the  parties  had  settled  by  amicable 
arbitration.  That  to  require  all  the  late 
decisions  of  the  legally  organized  courts 
to  be  set  aside  by  the  act  of  the  king, 
would  be  illegal  and  oppressive  on  the 
part  of  Mr.  Simpson,  and  decidedly  op- 
pressive on  the  part  of  the  king,  and 
would  justly  involve  him  both  with 
Americans  and  French,  etc.,  etc.  Simp- 
son replied  that  the  English  had  been 
treated  harshly,  and  consequently  the 
government  must  suffer.  His  course 
could  not  be  altered. 

"  Went  with  Lord  George  and  Simp- 
son to  the  council;  acted  as  spokesman; 
reiterated  the  above,  and  added,  the 
king  was  determined  to  hold  out  no 
longer ;  do  what  you  like,  take  the  isl- 
ands, but  do  not  force  him  to  acts  of 
injustice  ;  it  would  be  cruel  in  the  ex- 
treme, better  take  all.  Lord  George 
replied,  that  his  demands  were  not  un- 
just, he  acted  on  the  best  information 
and  testimony.  I  said,  I  know  that  you 
think  so,  but  I  assure  you  that  such  is 
not  the  opinion  of  the  government.  The 
king  remarked  that  he  did  not  think 
that  his  government  had  done  wrong.  I 
said,  we  must  be  heard  ;  your  informa- 
tion is  incorrect ;  we  appeal  to  Great 
Britain ;  take  the  islands,  we  will  yet 
have  justice.  Lord  George  replied  that 
he  did  not  come  to  take  the  islands.  I 
said,  you  had  better  do  it  than  pursue 
these  subjects  further  in  this  manner. 
He  or  Simpson  said  that  they  could 
only  act  on  a  request  of  the  king,  and 
it  must  be  in  writing.  Said  I,  let  all 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


165 


proceedings  be  stopped  ;  let  the  govern- 
ment have  time  to  reflect,  and  I  think 
they  will  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it 
is  better  for  you  to  take  the  government 
of  the  islands  than  to  go  on  any  further. 
But  we  must  have  time  ;  you  drive  the 
king  to  distraction,  and  I  fear  that  he 
will  cede  the  islands  to  France,  as  he 
has  been  invited  to  do.  Simpson  said 
he  would  not  allow  much  delay.  Lord 
George  said,  two  or  three  days  and  no 
more.  Simpson  said,  to-morrow  noon, 
and  if  it  was  not  done,  he  should  expect 
the  Dominis  case  to  be  tried  on  Satur- 
day. I  observed  that  the  time  was  too 
short.  Monday  then  at  the  furthest. 
We  went  into  certain  explanations  as  to 
the  manner  of  doing  the  thing,  and  I 
wrote  down  in  pencil  the  following  : 

"  '  In  consequence  of  the  difficulties  in  which  the 
Sandwich  Islands  are  involved,  and  the  impossibility 
of  complying  with  the  demands  made  by  Her  Britannic 
Majesty's  representative  in  the  form  in  which  they  are 
presented,  we  cede  [the  government  of]  our  islands  to 
Lord  George  Paulet,  etc.,  etc.,  for  the  time  being,  sub- 
ject to  any  arrangements  that  may  have  been  entered 
into  with  the  government  of  Great  Britain,  and  until 
intelligence  shall  have  been  received,  and  in  case  no 
arrangement  shall  have  been  made  previous  to  date, 
subject  to  the  decision  of  Her  Majesty's  government 
on  conference  with  the  ministers  of  the  Sandwich  Isl- 
ands government,  after  a  full  report  of  our  affairs  shall 
have  been  represented  to  Great  Britain ;  and  in  case 
the  ministers  are  rejected  by  Her  Britannic  Majesty, 
then  subject  to  any  arrangements  which  may  be  en- 
tered into.' 

"  Simpson  took  the  paper  and  walked 
in  the  verandah  with  Lord  George,  and 
returning,  said  that  would  do  ;  he  would 
make  a  copy  with  a  very  few  verbal  al- 
terations. 

"  It  was  arranged  that  the  chiefs  should 
have  an  opportunity  to  consider  these 
things,  and  an  answer  to  be  given  to- 
morrow noon.  Lord  George  and  Simp- 
son left.  King  and  Auhea  sat  with 
astonishment  and  misery.  Discussed 
awhile  in  council,  when  I  left  them  in 
order  to  take  some  refreshment.  When 
I  returned,  I  found  them  anxious  to  gain 
further  information.  The  subject  of 
ceding  to  France  and  the  United  States 
was  a  ray  of  hope  which  seemed  to 
gleam  across  their  dark  path,  but  they 
foresaw  that  under  such  circumstances 
they  would  still  have  this  fury — Simp- 
son— to  deal  with  until  the  French  took 
possession,  and  he  would  doubtless  in- 
volve them  in  more  trouble,  and  their 
cause  become  too  bad  to  admit  of  justi- 
fication. France  is  still  acting  a  hostile 
part  towards  them.  Char! ton  and  Simp- 


son arc  their  enemies,  but  England  is 
their  friend.  To  England  they  look  up 
with  the  most  filial  affections.  France 
is  picking  a  quarrel  with  them  now,  and 
complaints  are  now  in  existence  which 
will  make  more  trouble.  If  the  claims 
of  Simpson  are  allowed,  the  laws  will 
suffer,  and  the  nation  be  weakened  so 
much  that  France  will  leave  them  noth- 
ing. England  can  defend  them  from 
France,  and  to  cede  to  France  would  be 
to  say  England  had  no  right  here,  which 
is  to  the  government  more  than  doubt- 
ful, reckoning  right  as  the  nations  do. 
This  might  be  considered  an  act  of 
treachery. 

"  May  be  that  their  independence  is 
secured  already ;  if  so,  a  forcible  posses- 
sion on  the  part  of  either  would  annul 
it.  A  cession  would  not,  if  made  with 
provisos. 

**  In  the  evening  I  went  for  Lord 
George,  who,  together  with  Simpson 
and  Dr.  Rooke,  came.  Regulated  a  few 
points  respecting  the  course  he  should 
pnrsue  in  case  he  took  possession.  In- 
formed them  that  we  should  take  every 
possible  step  to  justtfy  the  government 
and  get  back  the  islands,  and  demanded 
a  pledge  that  such  exertions  be  not  con- 
sidered an  act  of  hostility  to  them. 

"  It  was  agreed  that  a  decision  should 
be  made  by  12  o'clock  on  the  25th. 
Lord  George  went  away.  Every  pos- 
sible view  of  the  case  was  taken  up  by 
the  council,  and  the  result  seemed  to  be 
to  give  up  the  islands  on  the  terms  pro- 
posed. 

"  25/?A. — The  king  sent  for  me  before 
breakfast.  Wished  to  know  what  I 
thought  of  the  old  proposition  of  ceding 
to  France  and  the  United  States.  I 
said  I  feared  it  would  involve  the  gov- 
ernment in  great  trouble.  The  French 
admiral  would  soon  be  here  and  take 
possession,  which  would  excite  hostil- 
ity between  Catholics  and  Protestants ; 
!  meanwhile  Simpson  would  continue  his 
j  course  of  conduct,  and  th§  difficulties 
would  become  inextricable.  Give  your- 
I  self  into  the  arms  of  Great  Britain,  trust 
to  the  generosity  of  that  great  and  good 
nation,  you  may  have  the  benefit  of  the 
intervention  of  France  for  the  adjust- 
ment of  difficulties  and  the  security  of 
your  independence.  Let  them  take  pos- 


166 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


session,   and    then    you    can   represent 

Four  case  in  full.  Lord  George  called, 
informed  him  that  the  matter  was 
nearly  decided.  One  of  the  propositions 
that  came  from  me  was  waived,  viz  : 
that  a  commission  be  appointed  to  ad- 
just the  claims  of  British  subjects. 

"  Dudoit  called,  and  many  others. 
Every  argument  used  to  induce  the 
king  to  cede  to  France  and  the  United 
States.  Sat  down  to  put  the  documents 
into  form.  The  king  proposed  to  make 
a  speech,  I  said  they  could  make  that 
out  among  themselves,  which  they  did. 
Deed  of  cession  being  ready,  the  chiefs 
came  in  and  it  was  read.  Sorrow  and 
distress  marked  every  countenance.  1 
was  asked  to  pray.  During  prayer, 
sighs  suppressed  were  often  heard.  I 
committed  the  case  to  God,  imploring 
His  blessing  on  the  step  about  to  be 
taken  as  the  only  peaceful  alternative 
for  the  nation,  etc.,  etc.  When  I  rose, 
not  an  individual  left  his  knees  for  a 
full  minute,  and  then  I  saw  that  tears 
had  come  to  their  relief.  They  sat  in 
silence  for  a  moment,  when  the  king 
arose,  and  with  a  firm  step  seized  a  pen 
and  subscribed  his  name.  '  Let  it  go,' 
said  he ;  '  if  I  get  help  I  get  it,  if  not,  let 
it  go.  I  can  do  no  more.'  The  premier 
then  added  her  signature." 

Having  decided  upon  a  provisional 
cession  of  his  dominions  to  Great  Brit- 
ain, the  king  announced  the  event  to  his 
subjects  in  a  touching  proclamation  : 

Where  are  you,  chiefs,  people  and  commons  from  my 
ancestors,  and  people  from  foreign  lands ! 

Hear  ye !  1  make  known  to  you  that  I  am  in  per- 
plexity by  reason  of  difficulties  into  which  I  have  been 
brought  without  cause;  therefore,  I  have  given  away 
the  life  of  our  land,  hear  ye !  But  my  rule  over  you, 
my  people,  and  your  privileges,  will  continue,  for  I 
have  hope  that  the  life  of  the  land  will  be  restored 
when  my  conduct  is  justified. 

Done  at  Honolulu,  Oahu,  this  twenty-fifth  day  of 
February,  1843. 

(Signed,)  KAMEHAMEHA  III. 

KEKAULUOHI. 

At  the  request  of  Lord  George,  Mr. 
Judd  was  appointed  by  the  king  as  his 
deputy.  Mr.  Judd  positively  declined 
to  undertak^the  responsibility,  and  the 
king  then  appointed  William  Paty,  Esq., 
whom  Lord  George  refused  to  receive. 
Upon  the  renewed  solicitation  of  the 
king,  that  he  could  do  much  for  the  na- 
tion and  his  interests,  and  a  written 
assurance  from  Lord  George  that  his 
services  were  required  in  the  new  ad- 


ministration, Mr.  Judd  consented  to  act, 
the  king  authorizing  him  to  employ  Mr. 
Paty  in  his  other  duties.  The  night  of 
the  cession  the  king  went  to  Maui,  and 
officers  were  sent  the  next  day  to  hoist 
the  British  flag  on  the  other  islands. 

Disturbances  between  the  English  sol- 
diers and  natives  commenced  immedi- 
ately, but  were  quelled  by  prompt  action 
on  the  part  of  the  native  authorities. 
The  policy  of  the  chiefs  was  to  preserve 
order  and  await  the  decision  of  England. 
The  foreign  residents  were,  however, 
restless  under  the  new  rule.  No  respect 
was  shown  the  British  officers,  and  their 
conduct  was  loudly  execrated.  The 
French  consul  refusing  to  acknowledge 
the  new  government,  his  official  func- 
tions were  suspended. 

The  commission  immediately  issued  a 
proclamation,  levying  an  additional  duty 
of  one  per  cent,  on  the  previous  duty  of 
three,  ad  valorem,  on  imported  goods  ; 
all  lands  held  by  whites  were  required 
to  be  registered  previous  to  June  1st ; 
new  registers  were  granted  to  vessels 
owned  by  foreign  residents,  putting  them 
upon  the  same  footing  as  British  bot- 
toms ;  and  some  alterations  were  made 
in  the  municipal  law.  Mr.  Judd  refused 
assent  to  many  of  these  measures,  so 
that  the  new  commission  was  far  from 
acting  harmoniously. 

On  the  llth  of  March,  Mr.  Simpson 
left  Honolulu  for  England,  in  a  vessel 
belonging  to  the  king,  with  dispatches 
to  the  foreign  office  from  Lord  George 
Paulet.  The  king  and  chiefs,  desirous 
of  being  represented  at  London  on  an 
occasion  of  such  vital  importance  by  an 
agent  of  their  own,  ordered  Dr.  Judd  to 
look  for  one.  Mr.  J.  F.  B.  Marshall,  an 
American  gentleman  resident  at  Hono- 
lulu, was  applied  to.  Having  consented 
to  go,  secret  instructions  were  given 
him ;  his  commission  and  papers  were 
signed  by  the  king  at  Waikiki,  who 
came  from  Lahaina  for  that  purpose, 
and  stopped  there  to  avoid  meeting  the 
British  Commission.  Without  disclos- 
ing his  agency  to  Simpson,  Mr.  Mar- 
shall was  allowed  passage  in  the  same 
vessel,  by  which  he  carried  the  news  of 
the  cession,  via  Mexico,  to  the  United 
States  and  England. 

Notwithstanding  the  solemn  stipula- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


167 


lions  on  the  part  of  Lord  George  Paulet 
to  respect  existing  laws  and  engage- 
ments, repeated  efforts  were  made  to 
violate  their  spirit.  The  populace,  im- 
patient under  the  new  rule,  became  less 
tractable  daily.  Great  efforts  were  made 
to  get  up  a  native  British  party.  Men 
were  bought  by  promises  and  gifts.  The 
loose  practices  of  former  times  were 
partially  winked  at.  The  auction  laws 
were  altered,  and  heavy  duties  imposed. 
The  wholesome  regulations  regarding 
lewdness  and  other  common  vices  were 
repealed.  Boat-loads  of  prostitutes  were 
allowed  to  visit  ships  in  the  harbor  as  in 
the  days  of  Liholiho.  Indecorous  and 
disgusting  scenes  were  witnessed  in  the 
streets  at  noon-day.*  Soldiers  were  en- 
listed under  the  name  of  the  Queen's 
regiment,  and  officers  commissioned. 
The  king  and  his  chiefs  were  repeatedly 
insulted.  Every  effort  was  made  to 
seize  the  national  treasury  and  records. 
Illegal  orders  on  the  former  were  pre- 
sented. Mr.  Judd  was  formally  informed 
by  Lord  George,  that  unless  he  honored 
his  drafts,  he  should  be  dismissed  from 
office,  and  some  one  put  in  his  place 
who  would  be  more  pliant.  The  author- 
ity of  the  courts  was  prostituted; — in 
short,  anarchy  and  violence  began  to 
appear,  and  it  was  evident  that  the  Brit- 
ish officers,  rioting  in  their  brief  and 
ill-gotten  authority,  respected  no  com- 
pacts and  acknowledged  no  guides  be- 
yond their  own  wills.  Mr.  Judd,  anxious 
to  preserve  the  authority  of  the  king  as 
long  as  possible  for  the  good  of  his  peo- 
ple, held  his  office  until  the  10th  of  May, 
when  entering  a  solemn  protest  against 
the  acts  of  Lord  George  Paulet,  he  with- 
drew from  the  commission,  absolving  the 
king  from  all  further  responsibility  or 
connection  with  its  doings.  This  act 
was  formally  approved  by  the  king  and 
premier.  On  the  24th  of  June  following 
they  issued  a  proclamation,  charging  the 
commissioners  with  having  maintained 
soldiers  not  called  for  by  any  exigencies 
of  the  country,  "  out  of  funds  appropri- 
ated for  the  payment  of  our  just  debts," 
and  "  violating  the  laws  which,  by  the 
treaty,  were  to  be  held  sacred,"  and  of 
other  mal-practices,  calling  the  world  to 
witness  that  they  had  "  broken  faith 

*  Friend,  vol.  1,  p.  37. 


with  us-,"  protesting  in  the  face  of  all 
men  against  all  such  proceedings  both 
towards  themselves  and  foreigners. 

After  this  withdrawal  of  the  king,  af- 
fairs daily  became  more  uneasy  between 
the  natives  and  resident  foreigners  and 
the  British  force.  Mr.  Judd  fearing  im- 
prisonment and  the  seizure  of  the  na- 
tional records,  withdrew  them  from  the 
government  house,  and  secretly  placed 
them  in  the  royal  tomb.  In  this  abode 
of  death,  surrounded  by  the  sovereigns 
of  Hawaii,  using  the  coffin  of  Kaahu- 
manu  for  a  table,  for  many  weeks  he 
nightly  found  an  unsuspected  asylum  for 
his  own  labors  in  behalf  of  the  kingdom. 
It  required  no  small  degree  of  prudence 
on  the  part  of  one  so  influential  and  be- 
loved among  the  natives  to  prevent  an 
actual  collision  between  the  hostile  par- 
ties. With  unshaken  reliance  on  the 
justice  of  England,  the  chiefs  impa- 
tiently awaited  her  decision.  On  the 
6th  of  July  the  United  States  ship  Con- 
stellation, Commodore  Kearney,  arrived. 
He  immediately  issued  a  public  protest 
against  the  seizure  of  the  islands.  The 
presence  of  a  ship  of  war  of  a  nation 
friendly  to  their  sovereign  rights  was 
encouraging  to  the  chiefs.  Commodore 
Kearney  on  all  occasions  treated  them 
as  independent  princes.  This  courtesy 
exasperated  still  further  Lord  George, 
who  wrote  the  king  that  if  he  should 
suffer  himself  to  be  saluted  under  the 
Hawaiian  flag,  he  would  forfeit  all  con- 
sideration from  Her  Majesty's  govern- 
ment. The  king  came  from  Maui  on 
the  21st  to  hold  communication  with 
Commodore  Kearney.  So  much  irrita- 
tion was  now  manifested  on  both  sides, 
that  a  violent  explosion  must  soon  have 
occurred,  when  unexpectedly  to  all,  on 
the  26th  of  July  Rear  Admiral  Thomas, 
in  the  Dublin,  frigate,  arrived  from  Val- 
paraiso, from  which  place  he  had  made 
all  possible  speed  on  receiving  the  des- 
patches of  Lord  George.  The  design  of 
his  visit  was  at  first  doubtful.  He  lost 
no  time  however  in  making  known  his 
intentions.  In  a  few  hours  it  was  un- 
derstood that  he  came  to  restore  the 
i  islands.  The  joy  of  the  natives  and  for- 
eigners  was  unbounded,  the  mortifica- 
I  tion  of  the  Simpson  party  extreme.  The 
!  renegade  natives  feared  for  their  heads. 


168 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLAXDM. 


Negotiations  were  promptly  opened  with 
the  king  by  the  admiral,  and  at  an  in- 
terview on  the  27th,  the  terms  of  the 
restoration  were  agreed  upon.    The  31st 
of  July,  a  day  ever  memorable  in  Ha- 
waiian annals,  was  the  time  appointed  j 
for  the  world  to  witness  England  in  the  j 
person  of  her  gallant  and  worthy  officer,  | 
restoring  to  the  petty  sovereign  of  the 
Hawaiian   Islands  his  prerogatives  and 
his   dominions.     It  was  done   in  great 
good  taste.     The  weather  proved  auspi- 
cious, and  the  entire  population,  white, 
and  native,  except  the  few  who,  sad  and 
disappointed,  sympathized  with  the  com- 
mander of  the  Carysfort,  poured  forth  en 
masse  on  to  the  plain  east  of  the  town 
to  participate    in   the   general  joy  and 
witness  the  ceremonies.     On  this  occa- 
sion, the  foreign  residents  who  had  stood 
by  the  king  so  warmly  through  all  his 
distress,  gave   unbounded   testimony   of 
their  sincere  satisfaction  of  his  restora- 
tion to  authority.     A  tent  was  prepared  j 
for  the  ladies.     At  10  o'clock,  A.  M.,  | 
several  companies   of  English  marines  j 
were  drawn  up  in  line  facing  the  sea,  i 
with  an   artillery  corps   on   their  right. 
The    king   came    escorted    by  his  own  | 
troops.     As  his  royal  standard  was  un-  j 
furled  under  a  salute  of  twenty-one  guns  ; 
from   the  brass  pieces  of  the   Dublin's  j 
corps,  the  English  ensigns  at  the  forts  I 
were  lowered  and  the  Hawaiian  colors  | 
re-hoisted.     National  salutes  were  then  j 
fired  successively  from  the  Dublin,  Haz-  j 
ard,  Carysfort  and  Constellation  men-of- 
war,  and  the  two  forts  and  shipping  in 
the  harbor.     After  a  review  of  the  mili- 
tary, the  king  returned  to  his  house,  and 
ordered  the  native  troops  raised  by  Lord  | 
George    to   appear   before    him.     They 
were  required  to  salute  the  king's  flag 
and  to  swear  fealty  to  their  lawful  sov- 
ereign.   Those  officers  who  had  received 
British  commissions  came  forward  and 
kissed  the  king's  hand.     At  one  o'clock 
the  king  attended  divine  service  at  the 
stone  church,  where  he  addressed  his 
people,  informing  them   that   "  the   life 
of  the  land  "  had  been  restored  to  him. 
Mr.  li  followed  his  majesty  in  a  spirited 
address,  announcing  in  the  name  of  the 
king  a  general  amnesty,  the  release  of 
all  prisoners,  and  a  festival  of  ten  days 
for  the  people.     During  this  period  the 


residents  manifested  their  satisfaction 
by  balls  and  entertainments,  attended 
by  the  chiefs  and  the  officers  of  the 
numerous  men-of-war  in  port.  Before 
the  festival  was  over,  the  United  States 
ships  United  States,  Commodore  Jones, 
and  the  Cyane,  Capt.  Stribling,  arrived. 
The  last  brought  the  news  of  the  recog- 
nition of  independence  by  England  and 
France.  Efforts  were  made  to  effect  a 
general  reconciliation  among  all  parties, 
and  all  pending  difficulties  were  left  to 
the  adjustment  of  the  king's  commis- 
sioners with  the  powers  abroad. 

Notwithstanding  the  handsome  man- 
ner in  which  Admiral  Thomas,  before 
hearing  from  his  government,  undertook 
to  restore  the  king  to  his  sovereignty,  in 
his  diplomatic  arrangements  he  required 
stipulations  highly  favorable  to  British 
interests  and  calculated  to  be  embar- 
rassing in  execution  to  the  king.  As 
these  however  were  to  be  but  of  tempo- 
rary effect,  the  king  gave  them  his  as- 
sent, trusting  for  independence  in  reality 
as  well  as  in  name,  from  the  exertions 
of  his  agents  in  Europe.  The  admiral, 
as  if  apprehensive  that  even  his  cautious 
policy  might  not  be  wholly  acceptable 
to  his  government,  moved  his  flag  on 
shore,  where  he  was  received  as  the 
nation's  guest,  and  awaited  advices  from 
England.  His  presence  was  favorable 
to  harmonizing  parties  and  to  preserv- 
ing the  tranquility  of  the  kingdom. 

The  policy  of  the  provisional  cession 
to  Great  Britain  has  been  much  ques- 
tioned, but  viewed  as  to  its  results  and 
a  cool  examination  of  the  alternative  at 
the  time  as  impressed  upon  the  minds 
of  the  chiefs,  it  must  now  be  allowed  to 
have  been  a  sagacious  act.  The  natural 
impulse  among  all  classes  was  to  resist 
such  aggravated  injustice ;  but  those 
who  felt  thus,  reasoned  that  to  have 
done  so,  would  have  played  the  part  of 
Simpson,  who  ardently  desired  to  drive 
matters  to  that  crisis,  that  English  blood 
having  been  shed,  the  kingdom  should 
fall  by  conquest.  .Resistance  or  retalia- 
tion, however  just,  on  the  part  of  sav- 
age nations  towards  civilized,  is  always 
viewed  as  wanton  aggression.  England 
herself  has  given  an  instance  of  this  in 
her  late  contest  with  the  natives  of  New 
Zealand,  The  act  which  led  to  the 


'HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


169 


vengeance  exercised  by  Capt.  Wilkes, 
of  the  United  States  Exploring  Expe- 
dition, at  the  Fiji  group,  by.  which  so 
many  unhappy  wretches  were  slaugh- 
tered, originated  in  the  unjustifiable  de- 
tention of  a  native  against  his  will ;  the 
attack  on  the  officers  being  the  savage 
thirst  for  revenge  on  the  part  of  the 
chief,  the  father  of  the  captive,  who  in 
an  attempt  to  escape  was  fired  at,  and 
supposed  to  have  been  killed.  So  Cook, 
in  1779,  lost  his  life  by  the  natives  in 
defence  of  their  chief.  A  country  won 
under  the  specious  glory  of  arms,  arouses 
the  pride  of  the  conquerors,  and  the  ini- 
quity of  the  aggression  is  lost  sight  of 
in  the  self-satisfaction  of  the  acquisition; 
or  else  lives  and  treasure  having  been 
lost  in  the  undertaking^  and  the  notice 
of  other  nations  attracted,  it  becomes  a 
matter  of  honor  to  persevere.  No  na- 
tion willingly  confesses-  itself  in  the 
wrong.  The  French  at  Tahiti  illustrate 
this  principle.  Simpson  was  well  aware 
of  the  force  of  an  appeal  written  in  blood 
to  the  pride  of  his  nation.  He  says, 
"  Indeed  I  cannot  but  regret  now,  see- 
ing the  undecided  action  of  the  British 
government,  that  some  act  on  the  part 
of  Lord  George  Paulet  had  not  left  any 
other  conclusion  open,  than  that  the  dy- 
nasty of  Kamehameha  must  cease  to 
reign." 

Passive  resistance  it  was  feared  would 
have  been  attended  with  evils  scarcely 
less  threatening  to  the  rights  of  the  king 
than  active  hostilities.  The  demands 
might  have  been  wholly  negatived  and 
Lord  George  compelled  to  hostilities. 
Unopposed,  one  gun  would  have  been 
sufficient  to  have  given  the  character  of 
force  to  the  possession.  But  the  chiefs 
felt  that  that  gun  would  have  been  the 
signal  that  the  native  authority  was  at 
an  end,  and  lawless  whites  inciting  the 
rabble,  stood  ready  to  burn  and  plunder. 
In  the  melee,  the  town  would  have  been 
consumed,  property  destroyed  and  lives 
lost;  the  responsibility  of  which  acts,  al- 
though the  direct  result  of  Lord  George's 
aggression,  would  have  been  placed  upon 
them.  There  was  reason  to  fear  that, 
winking  as  the  English  ministry  did  at 
the  French  usurpation  at  Tahiti,  hact; 
their  flag  been  raised  here  through  blood- 
shed, it  would  never  have  come  d'bwn. 


The  plan  to  evade  the  intention  of  Lord 
George  by  a  joint  cession  to  the  United 
States  and  France  was  impracticable. 
Captain  Long,  to  whom  it  was  notified, 
confessed  his  inability  to  do  anything 
beyond  reporting  the  fact  to  his  govern- 
ment. There  was  no  French  officer 
present  to  have  availed  himself  of  a  pos- 
session his  country  coveted.  Had  there 
been,  and  the  French  flag  raised,  Eng- 
lish blood  would  not  have  brooked  the 
interference  at  such  a  crisis,  and  another 
subject  matter  for  quarrel  would  have 
been  added  to  the  long  catalogue  between 
the  two  countries.  Before  any  action  on 
the  part  of  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  could  have  occurred,  either  France 
or  England  would  have  forcibly  possess- 
ed themselves  of  the  islands,  or  both 
landing  have  engaged  the  natives  in  a 
civil  war.  The-  actual  employment  of 
force  under  any  circumstances  by  any 
party,  it  was  considered  would  inevita- 
bly have  lost  the  king  his  crown;  hence, 
with  such  views,  the  policy  adopted,  em- 
phatically a  peaceful  one  and  appealing 
to  the  compassion  of  a  brave  nation  with- 
out exciting  its  pride,  was  judicious.  In 
the  event  of  its  failure  to  render  justice, 
the  Hawaiians  would  have  preferred 
English  to  French  rule,  from  the  greater 
intimacy  with  that  nation  and  the  im- 
plied guardianship  which  since  Vancou- 
ver, she  had  been  supposed  to  exercise 
over  them.  Whatever  credit  then  may 
be  supposed  to  arise  from  the  mode  of 
the  cession,  by  which  so  powerful  an  ad- 
versary was  disarmed,  it  belongs-  in  chief 
to  Mr.  Judd,  with  whom  the  form  origin- 
ated, and  who-,  rather  than  countenance 
any  of  the  other  plans  proposed,  offered 
to  resign  his-  commission  into  the  king's 
hands. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Embassy  to  the  United  States  and  Europe— Acknowl- 
edgment of  Independence  at  Washington — Diplomacy 
in  London — Paris— Belgium — Independence  acknowl- 
edged by  England,  and  France— Excitement  in  the 
United  States — A.  Simpson — Correspondence  between 
Mr.  Fox  andiMr:  Upshur — Claim  of  indemnification  on 
England — Joint  Guarantee  of  Great  Britain  and  France 
— "Times"  newspaper — Return  to  the  United  States — 
Death  of  Haalilio. 

MESSRS.  Haalilio  and  .Richards  enter- 
ed' upon  the  business  of  their  mission  at 
Washington,  in  December,  1842.  They 
were  favorably  received,  though  the  ad- 


170 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


ministration  did  not  at  first  enter  so  fully 
into  their  views  as  they  desired.  After 
some  negotiation,  the  President  trans- 
mitted to  Congress  a  message,  dated 
December  31,  1842,  in  which  he  said : 

'•Just  emerging  from  a  state  of  barbarism,  the  govern- 
ment of  the  islands  is  as  yet  feeble  ;  but  its  dispositions 
app  ar  to  be  just  and  pacific,  and  it  seems  anxious  to  im- 
prove the  condition  of  its  people  by  the  introduction  of 
knowledge,  of  religious  and  moral  institutions,  means  of 
education,  and  the  arts  of  civilized  life. 

"It  cannot  but  be  in  conformity  with  the  interest  and 
the  wishes  of  the  government  and  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  that  this  community,  thus  existing  in  the  midst 
of  a  vast  expanse  of  ocean,  should  be  respected,  and  all 
its  rights  strictly  and  conscientiously  regarded.  And  this 
must  also  be  the  true  interest  of  all  other  c  mmercial 
States.  Far  remote  from  the  dominions  of  European 
powers,  its  growth  and  prosperity,  as  an  independent 
State,  may  yet  be  in  a  high  degree  useful  to  all,  whose 
trade  is  extended  to  those  regions  5  while  its  nearer  ap- 
proach to  this  continent,  and  the  intercourse  which  Amer- 
ican vessels  have  with  it — such  vessels  constituting  five- 
sixths  of  all  which  annually  visit  it— could  not  but  create 
dissatisfaction  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  at  any 
attempt,  by  another  power,  should  such  an  attempt  be 
threatened  or  feared,  to  take  possession  of  the  islands, 
colon'ze  them,  and  subvert  the  native  government.  Con- 
sidering, therefore,  that  the  United  States  possess  so  very 
large  a  share  of  the  intercourse  with  those  islands,  it  is 
deemed  not  unfit  to  make  the  declaration  that  their  gov- 
ernment seeks,  nevertheless,  no  peculiar  advantages,  no 
exclusive  control  over  the  Hawaiian  government,  but  is 
content  with  its  independent  existence,  and  anxiously 
wishes  for  its  security  and  prosperity.  Its  forbearance, 
ia  this  respect,  under  the  circumstances  of  the  very  large 
intercourse  of  their  ci'.izens  with  the  islands,  would  justify 
this  government,  shou'd  events  hereafter  arise  to  require 
it,  in  making  a  decided  remonstrance  agninst  the  adop- 
tion of  au  opposite  policy  by  any  other,  power.'' 

These  sentiments,  with  the  act  creat- 
ing a  commissioner  to  reside  at  the  court 
of  Hawaii,  were  considered  tantamount 
to  a  formal  recognition,  and  on  March 
3d,  1843,  George  Brown,  Esq.,  was  ap- 
pointed to  that  office. 

The  king's  commissioners  arrived  in 
London  in  February,  1843,  where  they 
were  joined  by  Sir  George  Simpson,  and 
entered  into  communication  with  the 
Foreign  office.  Lord  Aberdeen  declined 
receiving  them  as  ministers  from  an  in- 
dependent nation,  but  consented  to  ac- 
knowledge them  as  authorized  to  "  rep- 
resent the  government  of  the  Sandwich 
Islands."  Their  first  interview  was  on 
the  22d  of  February.  Lord  Aberdeen 
was  unfavorable  to- the  recognition  of  in- 
dependence, saying  "  it  would  be  ridicu- 
lous, for  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  the 
king  governs  himself;  he  is  influenced 
by  others ; "  and  that  the  islands,  through 
the  exertions  of  the  missionaries,  were 
falling  "  exclusively  under  American  in- 
fluence, to  the  injury  of  British  inter- 
ests ; "  but  added,  "  that  it  was  of  no 
consequence  to  British  interests  whether  j 
the  government  were  u,nder  the  influence  I 


of  missionaries  or  whoever  else,  so  long 
as  justice  were  done." 

On  the  8th  of  March  the  commission- 
ers left  London  for  Paris,  by  way  of 
Belgium,  where  they  saw  King  Leopold, 
who  pledged  his  influence  to  aid  the 
great  object  of  their  mission.  They  ar- 
rived in  Paris  on  the  15th,  and  on  the 
17th  had  an  interview  with  M.  Guizot, 
who  received  them  with  marked  cour- 
tesy, and  promptly  gave  a  pledge  to 
acknowledge  the  independence  of  the 
islands.  They  reached  London  again 
on  the  20th,  and  in  an  interview  with 
the  British  minister  on  the  25th,  re- 
ceived "  the  full  assurance  that  the  in- 
dependence of  the  islands  would  be 
virtually  or  really  acknowledged,  and 
that  Mr.  Charlton  would  be  removed." 
On -the  1st  of  April,  the  Earl  of  Aber- 
deen formally  communicated  the  senti- 
ments of  his  government  to  the  king's 
commissioners,  as  follows  : 

'•  Her  Majesty's  government  are  willing  and  have  de- 
termined to  recognize  the  independence  of  the  Sandwich 
Islands  under  their  present  Sovereign. 

"  1  think  it  expedient  to  add  that  Her  Majesty's  gov- 
ernment desire  no  special  favor  or  immunity  for  British 
subjects  •,  on  the  contrary,  they  wish  to  see  all  foreigners 
residing  on  the  Sandwich  Islands  treated  on  a  footing  of 
perfect  equality  before  the  law,  and  equal  protection  af- 
forded by  the  government  to  all." 

The  commissioners  had  thus  far  been 
successful  in  their  mission,  when  news 
arrived  of  the  provisional  cession  of  the 
islands  to  Lord  George  Paulet.  Mr. 
Marshall  had  already  carried  it  to  the 
United  States,  where,  added  to  other 
causes  tending  to  influence  the  national 
mind  against  England,  it  created  a  pro- 
digious excitement.  Throughout  the 
Union  the  public  press  echoed  with  de- 
nunciations of  the  rapacity  of  England. 
The  Oregon  and  California  questions 
were  then  beginning  to  awaken  public 
interest.  The  act  of  Lord  George  Paulet 
was- considered  as  the  commencement  of 
the  denouement  of  a  grand  aggressive 
political  drama,  by  which  England  in- 
tended to  appropriate  to  herself  the  isl- 
ands and  the  neighboring  continent. 
The  people  of  the  United  States  felt 
the  deepest  interest  in  the  independence 
and  welfare  of  Karaehameha's  dominion, 
both  from  self-interest,  as  a  depot  for 
their  vast  whaling  trade  and  other  com- 
mercial interests,  and  from  jealousy  of 
their  great  maritime  rival,  and  also  as 
being  the  petted  object  of  their  religious 


EI8TOEY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


171 


sympathies.  They  claimed  its  conver- 
sion to  Christianity  as  a  moral  conquest 
altogether  their  own.  More  than  half 
a  million  of  money,  the  contributions  of 
their  piety,  had  been  lavishly  bestowed 
in  redeeming  it  from  heathenism.  To 
prevent  so  important  a  post  from  pass- 
ing into  the  hands  of  England,  was  an 
object  worthy  of  national  interference. 
Such  was  the  general  voice.  Some 
presses,  more  moderate,  regarding  the 
matter  in  a  truer  light,  believed  that 
England  would  hesitate  to  avail  herself 
of  what  they  considered  to  be  the  unau- 
thorized act  of  her  officer.  They  were 
correct.  Mr.  Marshall  after  delivering 
his  dispatches  at  Washington,  hastened 
to  London,  where  he  arrived  in  July. 
The  news  had  preceded  him,  as  also 
had  Alexander  Simpson,  who  immedi- 
ately repaired  to  the  Foreign  office  to 
justify  his  conduct,  and  to  induce  the 
British  ministry  to  retain  the  prize  he 
had  gratuitously  placed  in  their  hands. 
The  British  public  and  government  were 
both  astonished  at  an  event  so  little  an- 
ticipated. The  latter  had  gone  too  far  to 
retreat.  Public  opinion  in  Europe  and 
America,  whatever  might  have  been 
their  real  desires,  was  too  strong  for 
them  to  openly  face  it  in  violation  of  the 
pledge  already  given.  Alexander  Simp- 
son soon  learned  their  decision.  He 
says  :  "  Instead  of  a  prompt  acceptance 
of  the  cession,  which  had  public  opin- 
ion been  brought  to  bear  on  the  subject, 
would  undoubtedly  have  taken  place, 
the  ministers  used  such  red-tapist  lan- 
guage as — « It  was  quite  unauthorized, 
quite  unexpected.  Everything  connected 
with  it  is  of  a  novel  and  peculiar  char- 
acter— it  requires  a  more  than  usual  de- 
liberation on  the  part  of  Her  Majesty's 
government  to  determine  the  line  of 
conduct  proper  to  be  pursued  in  the  mat- 
ter.' "  \V  ith  some  sharpness  he  adds  : 
"  The  '  do  nothing '  spirit  of  the  Feel 
cabinet  could  not  be  excited  even  by 
the  gratuitous  addition  to  British  pos- 
sessions of  a  valuable  colony."* 

From  this  time  Mr.  Simpson,  disa- 
vowed by  his  own  government,  disap- 
pears. The  boldness  of  his  design,  and 
the  energy  with  which  he  carried  it 
through,  with  his  rational  views  of  the 


Simpson's  History,  p.  92. 


ultimate  advantages  to  Great  Britain  of 
such  an  acquisition  to  her  territory,  pre- 
sent a  striking  contrast  to  the  petty  ma- 
neuvering and  disgraceful  intrigues  of 
his  inferiors  in  talents,  whom  he  used  at 
will  as  coadjutors  or  agents  in  his  plan. 
Never  for  a  moment  does  he  appear  to 
have  faltered  in  his  undertaking  from 
any  obligation  of  right,  justice,  or  even 
humanity.  Boldly  and  unflinchingly  he 
persevered  through  all  obstacles,  and 
faithfully  acted  up  to  his  threat  of  the 
29th  August,  1842,  to  Governor  Kekua- 
naoa,  made  in  the  presence  of  witnesses 
and  on  official  record,  that  "I  will  do 
everything  in  my  power  to  bring  this 
government  into  difficulty.  I  have  both 
talents  enough  and  influence  enough  to 
do  it."  Though  the  end  recoiled  upon 
himself,  had  the  British  ministry  been 
less  scrupulous  his  reward  and  fame 
would  have  been  far  different. 

On  the  13th  of  June,  Lord  Aberdeen 
informed  Messrs.  Haalilio  and  Richards 
that  "  Her  Majesty's  government  had  no 
desire  to  retain  possession  of  the  Sand- 
wich Islands."  This  intention  was  com- 
municated to  France  through  their  min- 
ister, and  on  the  25th  of  June,  Mr.  Fox, 
H.  B.  M.'s  minister  at  Washington,  ad- 
dressed the  Secretary  of  "State  to  the 
same  effect,  adding,  it  "  was  an  act  en- 
tirely unauthorized  by  Her  Majesty's 
government,"  and  that — 

"Instructions  which,  during  the  past  year,  were  ad- 
dressed by  Her  Majesty's  government  to  the  British  Con- 
sul residing  in  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and  to  the  naval 
officers  employed  on  the  Pacific  station,  enjoined  those 
officers  to  treat  upon  all  occasions  the  native  rulers  of  the 
Sandwich  Islands  with  forbearance  and  courtesy  ;  and 
while  affording  due  and  efficient  protection  to  aggrieved 
British  su1  jects,  to  avoid  interfering  harshly  or  unneces- 
sarily with  the  1 1  ws  and  customs  of  the  native  government. 

'•  It  has  been  the  desire  of  the  British  government,  in 
regulating  the  intercourse  of  its  public  servants  with  the 
native  authorities  of  the  Sandwich  Islands,  rather  to 
strengthen  those  authorities  and  to  give  them  a  sense  of 
their  independence  by  leaving  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice in  their  own  hands,  than  to  make  them  feel  their 
dependence  upon  foreign  powers  by  the  .exercise  of  un- 
necessary interference.  It  has  not  been  the  purpose  of 
Her  Majesty's  government  to  seek  to  establish  a  para- 
mount influence  in  those  islands  for  Great  Britain  at  the 
expense  of  that  enjoyed  by  other  powers. 

"  All  that  has  appeared  requisite  to-Her  Majesty's  gov- 
ernment has  been,  that  other  powers  shall  not  exercise 
there  a  greater  influence  than  that  possessed  by  Great 
Britain.  II.  S.  FOX." 

This  prompt  decision  at  once  quieted 
the  public -mind.  Mr.  Marshall  having 
become  associated  with  Messrs.  Haalilio 
and  Richards  in  their  mission,  the  three 
entered  into  correspondence  with  the 
Foreign  office  in  London  on  the  subject 


172 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


of  complaints  brought  by  Simpson  against 
their  government.  In  the  course  of 
this  business,  Mr.  Addington,  the  under 
secretary,  remarked  that  the  British 
government  "  could  not  afford  to  risk 
their  reputation  by  doing  other  than  jus- 
tice to  a  small  nation  which  could  not 
resist  them;"  thus  confessing  that  inno- 
cence united  to  weakness  had  become  a 
match  for  even  the  greatest  power  itself. 
The  Earl  of  Aberdeen  having  been  in- 
vited to  pronounce  judgment  himself 
upon  the  charges  brought  forward  by 
Simpson  which  led  to  the  occupation  of 
the  islands  by  Lord  George  Paulet,  after 
an  examination  of  the  papers  submitted, 
with  the  aid  of  the  principal  law  adviser 
to  the  crown,  came  to  a  decision  favor- 
able to  the  Hawaiian  government.  The 
decision  in  the  immediate  case  of  Skin- 
ner and  Simpson,  is  worthy  of  quota- 
tion as  bearing  upon  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  courts,  a  point  since  frequently  con- 
tested. 

"  After  maturely  weighing  the  arguments  on  both  sides, 
Her  Majesty's  government  are  of  the  opinion  that  what- 
ever motives  Messrs.  Skinner  and  Simpson  may  have 
entertained  of  the  impossibility  of  having  justice  done 
them  in  the  courts  of  the  islands,  they  were  bound,  in  the 
first  instance,  to  submit  their  case  to  the  judgment  of 
those  courts  ;  and  that  having  neglected  or  refused  so  to 
do,  it  is  not  competent  -in  them  now  to  .get  rid  of  the  ef- 
fect ol  a  decision  adverse  to  their  views." 

The  minor  cases  of  grievances  the  gov- 
ernment abstained  from  entering  upon, 
"as  not  requiring  so  formal  a  decision," 
thus  implying  their  frivolousness. 

Mr.  Skinner's  claim  for  $3,000  was 
pronounced  unjust,  and  the  government 
not  liable  for  the  sum  demanded.  Mr. 
Charlton  was  required  to  produce  the 
original  grant  of  the  land  which  Lord 
George  Paulet  had  put  him  in  posses- 
sion of,  and  show  it  to  be  genuine.  Mr. 
Addington  further  assured  Mr.  Richards 
;that,  provided  *the  lease  was  genuine, 
General  William  Millet,  who  had  been 
appointed  on  the  25th  of  August  H.  OB. 
M.!s  "Consul  General  for  the  Sandwich, 
Society,  Friendly  and  other  islands  in 
the  Pacific,"  would  be  instructed  not  to 
deliver  to  Mr.  Charlton  "  any  ground 
which  had  'been  occupied  by  others,  un- 
less it  was  occupied  against  his  bonafide 
remonstrance."  If  this  had  been  acted 
upon  it  would  have  been  tantamount  to 
a  judgment  in  favor  of  the  Hawaiian 
government.  In  answer  to  a  claim  for 
indemnification  for  the  damages  accruing 


to  the  treasury  and  national  property  by 
the  illegal  acts  of  Lord  George  Paulet, 
j  the  Earl  of  Aberdeen,  on  the  16th  of 
November,  replied  that  "  Her  Majesty's 
I  government,  although  regretting  the  in- 
convenience and  expense  to  which  the 
Sandwich  Islands  government  has  been 
subjected  by  the  cession  of  the  islands 
to  Lord  George  Paulet,  do  not  consider 
themselves  in  any  way  answerable  for 
the  evils  arising  from  it,  or  liable  to 
make  good  any  expense  which  may  have 
resulted  from  the  temporary  occupation 
of  the  islands."  This  opinion  is  founded 
on  the  allegation  that  the  cession  was 
a  "  perfectly  spontaneous  deed  "  on  the 
part  of  the  kinq-.  In  a  letter  of  March 
13th,  1844,  the 'Earl  of  Aberdeen,  in  re- 
ply to  the  claim  again  presented,  on  the 
assurance  that  Lord  George  Paulet  took 
forcible  possession,  says  :  "But  it  is  ob- 
vious that  there  was  no  necessity  on  the 
part  of  the  king  to  take  so  extreme  a 
step.  He  might  have  refused  compli- 
ance with  the  terms  imposed  upon  him  ; 
and  in  declaring  his  intention  to  appeal 
to  Great  Britain,  he  might  have  left  Lord 
George  Paulet  to  take  on  his  own  re- 
sponsibility whatever  measures  he  might 
think  proper.  Had  the  king  adopted  this 
course,  and  had  Lord  George  Paulet 
taken  forcible  possession  of  the  country, 
then  there  might  have  been  ground  for 
the  Sandwich  Islands  government  to 
claim  compensation;  provided  the  griev- 
ances which  led  to  the  occupation  should 
have  been  admitted  by  the  British  gov- 
ernment to  be  unfounded,  or  even  insuf- 
ficient to  justify  so  strong  a  measure." 
The  doctrine  which  makes  the  aggressor 
the  sole  judge  over  his  own  illegal  act, 
would  most  likely  save  his  purse.  The 
case  would  indeed  have  been  clearer, 
and  the  damages  greater,  had  the  oc- 
cupation been  forcible  ;  but  would  the 
British  government  have  assumed  the 
j  monetary  responsibility  growing  out  of 
I  the  losses  arising  to  all  classes  in  case 
I  of  a  resistance,  whether  active  or  pass- 
I  ive,  which  the  peaceful  policy  of  the 
king,  relying  upon  their  justice,  alone 
prevented  ?  If  the  Earl  meant  to  imply 
that  Lord  George  would  not  have  taken 
that  "  responsibility,"  it  was  more  than 
the  king  had  any  reason  to  believe,  as 
he  was  then  situated,  an  unrecognized 


HISTORY   OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


173 


-semi-savage  chief.  History  shows  that 
acts  of  aggression  on  barbarous  powers 
without  the  pale  of  nations  pass  unre- 
proved  and  unnoticed,  and  there  is  rea- 
son to  believe  that  whatever  Lord  George 
had  done  would  have  been  no  exception 
to  the  rule.  On  the  contrary,  there  was 
great  reason  to  fear  that  resistance  would 
have  led  to  the  fulfillment  of  Simpson's 
ardent  desire,  the  permanent  acquisition 
of  a  valuable  colony  to  the  British  crown. 
Under  such  circumstances,  after  a  virtual 
condemnation  of  Lord  George  Paulet, 
it  cannot  but  be  viewed  in  a  moral  and 
equitable  sense,  however  diplomacy  may 
shuffle  about  it,  as  a  small  matter  for 
England  to  refuse,  to  redress  her  own 
wrong  when  it  comes  to  matters  of  dol- 
lars and  cents. 

On  the  28th  of  November,  the  Ha- 
waiian commissioners  obtained  from  the 
governments  of  France  and  England  a 
joint  declaration  to  the  effect  that — 

"Her  Majesty,  the  Queen  of  the  United  Kingdom  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  and  His  Majesty  the  King  of 
the  French,  taking  into  consideration  the  existence  in 
the  Sandwich  Islands  of  a  government  capable  of  provid- 
ing for  the  regularity  of  its  relations  with  foreign  nations, 
have  thought  it  right  to  engage  reciprocally  to  consider 
the  Sandwich  Islands  as  an  Independent  State,  and  never 
to  take  possession,  neither  directly  nor  under  the  title  of 
Protectorate,  nor  under  any  other  form,  of  any  part  of 
the  territory  of  which  they  are  composed. 

"  The  undersigned,  Her  Majesty's  Principal  Secretary 
of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs,  and  the  Ambassador  Extra- 
ordinary of  His  Majesty  the  King  of  the  French,  at  the 
Court  of  London,  being  furnished  with  the  necessary 
powers,  hereby  declare  in  consequence,  that  their  said 
Majesties  take  reciprocally  that  engagement. 

"In  witness  whereof  the  undersigned  have  signed  the 
present  declaration,  and  have  affixed  thereto  the  Seal  of 
their  Arms. 

"Done  in  duplicate,  at  London,  the  28th  day  of  No- 
vember, in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1843." 

(Signed,)          ABERDEEN.         [L.  s-1 
'      "  ST.  AULAIRE.     [L.  s.j 

This  solemn  engagement  on  the  part 
of  these  two  powers  was  the  final  act  by 
which  the  kingdom  of  Hawaii  was  ad- 
mitted within  the  pale  of  civilized  na- 
tions. The  London  Times  of  August 
20th  the  same  year,  in  a  semi-official 
leader,  had  thus  announced  the  views  of 
the  British  government  in  relation  to  the 
independence  of  the  group  : 

"  In  their  independent  condition,  the  islands  of  the  Pa- 
cific were  useful  to  all  nations,  and  dangerous  to  none  ; 
and  all  that  was  needed  was  to  respect  that  independence, 
and  to  leave  them  alone.  The  British  government,  act- 
ing upon  this  principle,  even  after  our  neighbors  had 
avowed  their  determination  to  hold  the  Marquesas  and 
the  Society  groups,  repudiated  the  sovereignty  of  the 
Sandwich  Islands,  and  withheld  its  approval  from  the 
act  of  cession  which  had  been  concluded,  subject  to  the 
final  orders  from  the  home  government.  That  decision 
was  taken,  not  from  any  want  either  of  right  or  of  power 
to  defend  that  right,  but  simply  because  it  was  held  to 
be  inexpedient  'to  found  a  colonial  establishment,  aud  to 


awaken  the  jealousy  of  other  countries  for  no  purpose 
that  cannot  be  equally  secured  by  the  maintenance  of  the 
independence  of  the  country.  But  before  the  temporary 
connection  is  dissolved  which  has  placed  the  sovereignty 
of  the  Sandwich  Islands  in  our  hands,  it  obviously  be- 
comes the  duty  of  our  government  to  secure  by  the  most 
positive  and  formal  pledges,  both  from  France  and  from 
America,  that  independence  which  we  now  propose  to 
restore  to  the  native  princes.  We  are  perfectly  well  sat- 
isfied that  the  ports  of  these  islands  should  remain  open,  as 
liarbors  of  refuge  and  supply,  to  the  vessels  of  all  nations, 
in  time  of  war  as  well  as  in  peace  ;  and  the  establish- 
ment of  this  neutral  and  independent  character  is  an  ob- 
ject not  unworthy  the  policy  of  a  high-minded  statesman." 

The  commissioners  returned  to  the 
United  States  in  the  spring  of  1844. 
On  the  6th  of  July,  they  received  a  com- 
munication from  Calhoun,  Secretary  of 
State,  confirming  the  "full  recognition 
on  the  part  of  the  United  States,  of  the 
independence  of  the  Hawaiian  govern- 
ment." In  November  they  took  passage 
from  Boston  for  Honolulu,  in  the  ship 
Montreal,  Capt.  Snow.  Haalilio,  whose 
health  had  been  very  precarious  during 
the  latter  period  of  his  embassy,  died  at 
sea,  3d  of  December,  1844.  His  re- 
mains were  taken  to  Honolulu,  where 
they  were  deposited  in  the  royal  tomb 
with  much  ceremony  and  sincere  mourn- 
ing. His  loss  was  severely  felt;  for 
from  his  intelligence,  and  the  ardor  with 
which  he  stored  his  mind  with  knowl- 
edge derived  from  the  intellectual  cir- 
cles he  visited  abroad,  great  hopes  were 
entertained  of  his  enlightening  influence, 
especially  in  matters  of  internal  polity, 
over  his  brother  chiefs. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

Policy  of  the  Government  since  their  Independence— Ap- 
pointment of  Mr.  Judd— Arrival  of  General  Miller- 
Commissioner  Brown— Treaty  with  England— Attorney 
General  appointed— R.  C.  Wyllie,  Minister  of  Foreign 
delations— Rival  parties  formed— Polynesian— Political 
Events  from  1843— 1847— New  Laws  -Executive— For- 
eign officers — Royal  School — Commercial  Statistics — 
Revenue  and  Public  Debt. 

WHATEVER  doubts  may  have  existed, 
from  the  28th  of  November,  1843,  the 
Hawaiians  were  entitled  to  the  full  rights 
and  immunities  of  an  independent  na- 
tion. The  boon  so  ardently  desired  had 
been  granted,  and  they  were  now  fairly 
launched  on  the  sea  of  international  ex- 
istence, to  steer  their  little  bark  and  trim 
its  sails  to  catch  every  favorable  puff 
to  advance  them  in  their  new  career. 
The  rulers  felt  grateful  for  the  aid  and 
sympathy  they  had  experienced  in  the 
disasters  brought  upon  them  by  the  reck- 


174 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


less  passions  and  intriguing  dispositions 
of  their  unprincipled  antagonists.  They 
were  now  freed  from  the  fear  of  lawless 
attacks  or  summary  revenge.  The  great 
nations  having  admitted  them  to  the 
nominal  footing  of  equality,  the  least 
they  could  do  now  was  to  hear  before 
they  struck.  Desirous  of  deserving  the 
confidence  shown,  the  king  determined 
upon  a  policy,  which  while  it  should  be 
protective  to  himself  and  his  subjects, 
should  be  just  to  foreigners.  Difficulties 
and  dangers  yet  remained  in  the  way. 
The  former  arose  rather  from  the  un- 
promising materials  of  his  own  kingdom, 
and  the  latter  from  the  latent  hostility 
still  existing,  which  disappointment  had 
rather  disarmed  than  destroyed.  His  re- 
sources for  forming  an  enlightened  and 
influential  government  were  few ;  the 
wants  of  his  kingdom  were  many ;  the 
expectations  of  foreigners  high ;  men  of 
all  races,  embracing  every  variety  of 
interest,  mental  culture  and  enterprise, 
existed  within  his  small  domains.  To 
unite  these  into  an  harmonious  whole, 
and  build  up  a  respectable  nation,  quali- 
fied to  maintain  with  regularity  its  rela- 
tions with  foreign  nations,  was  no  easy 
task.  This,  however,  the  king  and  his 
advisers  have  undertaken.  The  funda- 
mental principles  of  their  policy  are  to 
develop  a  purely  independent  Hawaiian 
nation ;  to  preserve  the  Kamehameha 
dynasty;  to  advance  the  young  chiefs 
sufficiently  to  enable  them  to  discharge 
the  entire  functions  of  government ;  in 
fact,  to  discover  if  there  be  life  enough 
left  in  the  dry  bones  of  heathenism, 
touched  by  the  revivifying  spirit  of  civi- 
lization, to  clothe  them  anew  with  flesh, 
and  reanimate  their  sinews  and  muscles. 
To  effect  this  it  is  necessary  to  maintain 
civil  institutions  commensurate  with  the 
wants  of  enlightened  foreigners,  but  to 
avoid  any  paramount  foreign  influence; 
to  develop  new  ideas  of  political  econ- 
omy among  the  natives ;  to  nurture  the 
germs  of  a  national  enterprise ;  and 
equally  to  allow  reasonable  scope  for 
the  more  refined  tastes  and  ambitious 
desires  of  whites.  To  meet  the  neces- 
sities of  such  a  heterogeneous  popula- 
tion, the  government  must  necessarily 
be  a  mixture  of  barbarism  and  civiliza- 
tion, accommodating  itself  in  its  range 


|  of  objects  to  all  the  diversified  wants 
I  and  intelligence  of  the  mixed  popula- 
tion. The  one  part  are  not  to  be  blind- 
ed with  too  much  light,  nor  the  other 
left  in  total  darkness.  The  events  which 
have  since  followed  are  too  recent  and 
undetermined  in  their  result  for  the  his- 
torian to  do  more  than  pass  them  in 
rapid  review. 

In  November,  1843,  Mr.  Judd  received 
the  appointment  of  Secretary  of  State 
for  Foreign  Affairs,  an  office  created  at 
the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Commissioner 
Brown,  who  arrived  at  Honolulu  16th 
October,  and  on  the  30th  presented  his 
credentials  and  entered  upon  the  duties 
of  his  post. 

Consul-General  Miller  arrived  the 
February  following,  bringing  with  him 
a  convention  drawn  up  in  London  to  be 
signed  by  the  king.  It  was  based  upon 
the  terms  of  the  irresponsible  and  unrat- 
ified  treaty  of  Laplace,  requiring  the 
admission  of  ardent  spirits,  the  proposal 
of  juries  in  criminal  cases,  by  the  con- 
sul, and  the  limitation  of  duties  to  5  per 
cent,  ad  valorem.  Each  of  these  condi- 
tions was  a  restriction  on  the  king's 
prerogatives,  to  which  he  gave  unwill- 
ing assent,  trusting  that  both  the  French 
and  English  governments  would  before 
long  listen  to  his  representations,  and 
leave  him  wholly  and  virtually  as  inde- 
pendent as  other  sovereigns. 

The  want  of  a  legal  adviser  to  the 
government  had  long  been  felt.  Mr. 
Judd  had  written  to  Mr.  Richards  with 
great  earnestness  on  this  subject,  urging 
him  before  he  left  Europe  to  engage  a 
lawyer  qualified  for  this  situation.  Fail- 
ing to  do  this,  on  the  9th  of  March  the 
king  appointed  John  Ricord,  Esq.,  an 
American  practitioner  of  talent,  member 
of  the  bar  of  the  State  of  New  York,  as 
Attorney  General  of  the  Hawaiian  Isl- 
ands, he  having  first  taken  the  oath  of 
allegiance.  From  this  period,  to  avoid 
the  charges  of  undue  national  bias,  by 
the  employment  of  officers  from  rival 
nations,  which  had  already  created  great 
distrust  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain, 
all  employed  in  the  service  of  the  gov- 
ernment were  required  to  become  natu- 
ralized Hawaiians.  This  policy  was 
extended  also,  after  the  system  of  the 
United  States,  to  all  who  wished  to  avail 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


themselves  of  the  privileges  of  citizen- 
ship; it  being  considered  to  strengthen 
the  king's  independence,  and  to  procure 
for  him  a  useful  and  enterprising  class 
of  foreign  born  subjects,  who  by  their 
superior  enterprise  and  talents  could 
materially  advance  the  welfare  of  the 
natives,  and  raise  up  a  counterpoise  to 
any  inimical  external  influence. 

In  March,  1845,  Kobert  C.  Wyllie, 
Esq.,  a  Scotchman  by  birth,  who  had 
been  appointed  by  Consul-General  Mil- 
ler, while  he  visited  Tahiti,  to  act  for 
him  in  the  capacity  of  Pro-Consul,  and 
had  in  a  friendly  and  official  intercourse 
of  eight  months  won  the  confidence  and 
respect  of  the  chiefs  as  well  as  the  resi- 
dents, was  invited  by  the  king  to  accept 
the  situation  of  Minister  of  Foreign  Re- 
lations. This  appointment  was  a  judi- 
cious one  in  many  respects.  It  relieved 
the  king  of  the  objection  on  the  part  of 
the  English  of  having  filled  his  cabinet 
entirely  from  Americans  by  birth,  while 
it  materially  strengthened  the  govern- 
ment by  bringing  into  its  councils  a  gen- 
tleman of  extensive  acquaintance  and 
enlarged  views.  Under  his  administra- 
tion the  business  of  the  foreign  office  has 
been  reduced  to  a  simple  and  efficient 
system,  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  all 
who  have  to  do  with  it,  and  his  influ- 
ence has  been  the  means  of  promoting 
many  useful  reforms  in  the  general  man- 
agement and  policy. 

The  employment  of  whites  in  official 
stations  gave  a  character  to  the  govern- 
ment it  had  not  previously  possessed. 
In  place  of  secret  and  embarrassing  in- 
fluences operating  upon  its  councils,  it 
openly  announced  its  dependence  upon 
white  intellect  to  conduct  its  foreign  re- 
lations. The  main  charge  heretofore 
brought  against  the  chiefs  had  been,  in 
the  words  of  the  petitioners  to  the  Eng- 
lish government,  that  they  were  "  quite 
unfit  to  perform  any  of  the  functions  of 
government." 

As  every  government  that  allows  free- 
dom of  speech  and  press  must  have  an 
active  opposition,  one  soon  arose  against 
the  new  policy,  denouncing  the  white  ad- 
visers and  advocating  the  idea  that  the 
chiefs  themselves  were  adequate  to  per- 
form all  the  functions  of  government, 
though  it  was  generally  admitted  that 


175 


some  foreign  assistance  was  necessary. 
Foreigners  being  invited  to  fill  responsi- 
ble posts,  and  received  into  the  nation 
on  the  basis  of  citizenship,  it  was  per- 
fectly natural  that  an  opposition  should 
arise.  In  effect,  there  became  two  par- 
ties, struggling  for  pre-eminence.  The 
officers  of  the  king,  taking  stand  on  the 
broad  ground  of  his  independence,  claim- 
ed for  him,  regardless  of  the  differences 
in  power  and  estate,  all  the  rights  and 
immunities  of  a  sovereign.  The  opposi- 
tion viewed  these  efforts  as  unwise  and 
impolitic,  thinking  that  a  sovereign  so 
little  removed  from  barbarism  was  better 
provided  for  by  a  species  of  guardian- 
ship— not  greatly  removed  from  dictator- 
ship— emanating  from  the  consuls  of  the 
three  great  nations  that  had  recognized 
their  independence.  The  king's  officers 
considered  there  was  less  danger  and 
embarrassment  in  claiming  a  nation's 
rights  in  full,  than  in  submitting  to  the 
dictation  of  agents  of  rival  powers,  who, 
however  much  they  might  desire  the 
welfare  of  the  Hawaiian  people,  were 
pledged  by  official  oaths  to  advance  the 
interests  of  their  own,  and  whom  it  would 
be  impossible  to  unite  in  full  harmony 
upon  any  disinterested  course  relative  to 
the  nation.  Such  a  system  as  they  ad- 
vocated, contrary  to  international  rule, 
could  not  fail  to  embroil  the  chiefs  with 
one  power  or  the  other,  according  as 
they  might  be  charged  with  partiality, 
and  the  government  thus  proposed  would 
soon  terminate  in  no  government  at  all, 
or  in  a  foreign  protectorate,  as  at  Tahiti. 
From  the  stand  which  each  party  took 
arose  a  war  of  words,  which  unfortunate- 
ly but  unavoidably,  from  the  complexity 
of  interests  and  dispositions  involved, 
and  from  the  smallness  of  the  political 
field,  degenerated  into  much  personal 
animosity,  so  that  in  little  more  than  a 
year  from  the  retro-cession  of  Admiral 
Thomas,  the  country  was  again  distract- 
ed by  conflicting  opinions.  M.  Dudoit, 
the  French  consul,  kept  aloof  from  these 
controversies,  and  both  he  and  his  coun- 
trymen, from  the  time  the  policy  of 
Guizot  was  made  known  in  regard  to 
the  kingdom,  treated  it  with  all  the 
courtesy  and  respect  due  even  a  great 
nation.  Dudoit's  policy  was  at  once 
respectful,  considerate  and  serviceable, 


176 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


affording  a  striking  contrast  to  the  em- 
barrassing course  previously  pursued  by 
him  and  other  official  gentlemen.  By 
this  means  he  rapidly  acquired  for 
France  a  position  as  high  in  the  confi- 
dence of  the  government  as  it  had  before 
been  low;  and  his  kind  offices  in  the 
preservation  of  order  among  his  coun- 
trymen, the  settlement  of  their  disputes 
extra-judicially,  and  without  annoyance 
to  the  authorities,  his  tact  in  the  manage- 
ment of  his  consulate  and  in  preserving 
harmonious  relations  among  all  parties, 
secured  for  him  a  well-merited  esteem. 
His  example  was  the  more  valuable,  as 
it  illustrated  to  the  king  with  what  facil- 
ity a  foreign  consul  could  render  real 
services  conjointly  to  his  countrymen 
and  the  native  authorities,  advancing 
equally  the  best  interests  of  both,  when 
a  good  disposition  prevailed.  All  com- 
plaints on  the  part  of  the  Roman  Catho- 
lics ceased,  and  they  formally  professed 
themselves  gratified  with  the  entire  tol- 
eration of  religious  beliefs  that  prevailed, 
and  the  perfect  impartiality  of  govern- 
ment. This  was  high  praise  from  the 
priests  of  Rome  to  a  Protestant  govern- 
ment. But  the  government  soon  met 
with  much  annoyance  from  the  officials 
of  the  United  States ;  and  before  long 
equally  as  much  from  Consul-General 
Miller.  The  government  undoubtedly 
erred  in  taking  too  high  a  tone,  and  re- 
pelling with  too  much  acrimony,  what 
they  considered  invasions  of  their  rights 
and  unfair  attempts  upon  their  independ- 
ence. Without  enumerating  cases  of 
but  temporary  and  local  interest,  it  is 
sufficient  to  observe  that  the  diplomatic 
intercourse  which  ensued  was  long,  tedi- 
ous, and  ill-calculated  to  appease  na- 
tional pride  or  conserve  public  harmony. 
The  disputes  which  arose  originated 
chiefly  from  questions  of  national  right — 
the  one  party  zealous  in  their  exaltation, 
the  other  carrying  them  to  an  extreme 
of  intrigue  and  dictation  offensive  to 
justice  and  candor.  Tho  claim  of  Charl- 
ton  to  the  land  in  Honolulu  was  the 
commencement  of  troubles  with  Consul- 
General  Miller.  The  parties  disagreed 
as  to  the  meaning  of  the  Earl  of  Aber- 
deen. The  government  claiming  the 
interpretation  in  full  of  the  requirement 
to  produce  the  deed  and  show  it  to  be 


genuine ;  Mr.  Miller  limited  it  to  an 
ascertainment,  by  comparison  of  hand- 
writings, of  the  genuineness  of  the  sig- 
natures alone.  The  former  considered 
the  courts  or  arbitration  as  the  proper 
source  of  the  decision ;  the  consul-gen- 
eral claimed  it  to  emanate  from  him  in 
concert  with  the  king  or  his  agent.  In 
complex  and  dubious  questions  it  is  poor 
policy  for  a  weak  power  to  assume  posi- 
tions which  can  only  be  sustained  by 
physical  strength.  In  questions  of  moral 
right  they  cannot  be  too  decided  ; — ex- 
pediency has  then  no  vote.  But  when 
there  is  ground  for  a  difference  of  opin- 
ion, without  compromising  principles, 
deference  is  due  both  from  policy  and 
respect  to  the  superior  party.  The  re- 
sult in  the  Charlton  claim  was,  that  the 
land  was  taken  possession  of  by  order  of 
the  British  government,  and  delivered 
over  to  the  claimant  in  August,  1845 ; 
but  upon  further  evidence  presented  to 
the  British  government  by  Mr.  Barclay, 
the  king's  commissioner  in  London,  has 
been  again  referred  to  the  law  adviser 
of  the  crown,  under  circumstances  that 
induce  the  hope  that  England  will  do 
equal  justice  in  this  the  last  pending 
case  growing  out  of  the  unauthorized 
acts  of  Lord  Paulet,  as  in  the  others. 

Mr.  Brown,  the  United  States  Com- 
missioner, early  assumed  a  tone  in  his 
public  and  private  intercourse  which  was 
considered  overbearing  and  unbecoming. 
A  question  arose  in  August,  1S44,  under 
the  jury  clause  of  the  British  treaty, 
which  brought  matters  to  a  crisis  with 
him.  An  American  had  been  fined  $50 
by  one  of  the  inferior  courts  for  an  of- 
fence which  by  the  Hawaiian  laws  was 
punished  as  a  misdemeanor,  but  which 
by  English  law  would  have  been  con- 
sidered as  a  crime.  The  mulcted  party 
appealed  for  a  jury,  which  was  accorded 
by  the  judge,  under  the  Hawaiian  statute 
providing  six  foreigners  and  six  Hawai- 
ians,  the  plaintiff  in  the  case  being  a  na- 
tive female.  An  entire  jury  of  foreigners 
selected  by  the  consul  was  contended 
for  and  refused  as  not  being  within  the 
meaning  of  the  British  treaty.  The  case 
was  argued  between  Mr.  Judd  and  Mr. 
Brown  at  great  length,  and  terminated 
with  so  much  heat  that  the  king  in  Sep- 
tember wrote  to  the  President  of  the- 


HISTORY  OF  TEE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


177 


United  States  desiring  the  recall  of  Mr. 
Brown. 

It  were  an  unthankful  task  to  trace 
the  spirit  of  contention  through  its  varied 
phases  until  the  appointment  of  new  of- 
ficers on  the  part  of  the  United  States. 
Much  of  the  excitement  of  this  period 
was  the  mere  fumes  of  party  violence, 
possessing  no  interest  beyond  its  ephe- 
meral existence.  The  courts  of  the 
country,  themselves  an  epitome  of  the 
nation,  as  far  removed  from  barbarism 
on  the  one  part,  as  they  were  from  in- 
tellectual equality  with  those  of  Europe 
or  America  on  the  other,  were  made  the 
butts  of  abuse  and  attack.  That  they  had 
other  merit  than  honesty  of  purpose,  and 
being  the  best  the  country  could  afford, 
was  never  claimed  for  them.  The  course 
in  general  pursued  by  them  meeting  the 
approval  of  judges  abroad,  strengthened 
them  in  public  opinion  at  home.  Amidst 
all  the  excitement  and  annoyance  con- 
sequent upon  ill-relations  existing  with 
Mr.  Brown  and  Consul-General  Miller, 
the  government  steadily  pursued  their 
policy  of  strengthening  the  power  of  the 
king,  and  consolidating  the  institutions 
of  the  country,  as  the  most  efficient 
course  for  promoting  good  morals  and 
meriting  the  good  will  of  other  powers. 
Relying  for  support  upon  a  correct  pub- 
lic sentiment,  and  desirous  of  making 
their  views  known  to  the  world,  and  jus- 
tifying themselves  against  the  prolific 
charges  of  their  enemies,  the  govern- 
ment, in  July,  1844,  established  the 
Polynesian  newspaper  as  its  public  or- 
gan. In  its  columns  will  be  found  dis- 
cussed their  views,  and  a  full  relation  of 
the  exciting  topics  of  the  day.  No  surer 
index  of  the  safety  of  the  nation  and  its 
advancing  civilization  exists,  than  the 
fact  that  the  press  has  become  equally 
the  weapon  of  the  opposing  parties,  and 
both  rely  upon  its  use  in  maintaining 
their  positions  or  enforcing  their  views. 
By  its  means  the  terrors  of  warlike 
threats,  formerly  so  freely  bandied,  have 
lost  their  meaning,  and  public  officers  as 
well  as  public  acts,  have  become  equally 
as  amenable  to  the  bar  of  public  opin- 
ion in  Honolulu  as  in  London  or  Wash- 
ington. 

The  20th  of  May,  1845,  witnessed  for 
the  first  time  in  Hawaiian  annals,  the 
23 


regular  opening  of  the  legislative  cham- 
bers by  the  king  in  person,  in  a  short 
and  pertinent  speech.     This  was  replied 
j  to  in  form  by  a  committee  of  the  nobles 
and    representatives.      The    ceremonies 
were  appropriate    to    the    occasion   and 
condition  of  the  nation.    On  the  succeed- 
ing day  the  several  ministers  read  their 
official  reports  for  the  past  year.     Al- 
though the  names  and  forms  of  official 
!  order  and  etiquette  as  they  exist  in  more 
I  advanced  countries  are  adopted  in  this, 
|  no  one  will  suppose  that  nothing  incon- 
!  gruous  exists  in  comparison  with  those 
lands  whence  they  are  borrowed.     The 
chiefs  have  ever  been  in  advance  of  the 
people,  and  the  foreign  branch  of  gov- 
|  eminent  and  its  ideas  must  necessarily, 
springing  as  it  does  from  civilized  intel- 
lect, be  in  advance  of  both.     It  is  the 
desire  of  the  advisers  of  the  king  to  pre- 
pare  for  the   nation  a  polity  of  forms 
which  shall  be  conservative  of  what  it  is 
expedient  to  preserve  of  the  past;  pro- 
tective in  what  it  is  wise  to  borrow  from 
abroad ;    and    refining,    organizing   and 
elevating  in  its  general  effects  upon  the 
kingdom.     Thus  many  forms  and  ideas 
are  introduced,  which  although  in  the 
outset  appear  disjointed  and  crude,  yet 
by  practice   conduce   to   useful  results. 
By  ceremonies  like  the  foregoing,  the 
nation  becomes  conversant  with  the  leg- 
islative rules  and  conventional   usages 
of   enlightened    countries.      Acting    on 
I  this  principle,  the  king's  birthday,  17th 
j  March;  restoration  day,  31st  July;  and 
independence  day,  28th  November,  have 
been  made  national  holidays. 

On  the  29th  of  March,  1846,  H.  M. 
C.  Majesty's  frigate  Virginie,  Admiral 
Hamelin,  arrived  at  Honolulu  for  the 
purpose  of  restoring  the  $20,000  exacted 
by  Captain  Laplace  in  1839.  M.  Perria, 
special  commissioner  from  the  King  of 
the  French,  came  in  the  ship,  entrusted 
with  a  treaty  concerted  between  England 
and  France,  by  which  all  previous  con- 
ventions were  abrogated,  and  the  objec- 
tionable clauses  regarding  ardent  -spirits 
and  juries  modified  so  as  to  ^become  more 
acceptable  to  the  king.  Juries  in  crim- 
inal cases  were  to  be  composed  "  of 
native  or  foreign  residents,  proposed  by 
the  British  (or  French)  consul,  and  ac- 
cepted by  the  government  of  the  Sand- 


178 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


wich  Islands."  Duties  were  allowed  to 
be  levied  on  wines  and  spirituous  liquors, 
provided  they  did  not  amount  to  an  abso- 
lute prohibition.  The  conditions  of  this 
treaty,  although  not  acknowledging  in 
full  the  king's  complete  independence, 
were  the  more  readily  acceded  to,  from 
an  intimation  on  the  part  of  the  Earl 
of  Aberdeen,  that  further  modifications 
would  be  consented  to  by  England  as 
the  condition  of  the  Hawaiian  nation 
might  afterwards  seem  to  justify. 

The  U.  S.  ship  Congress,  Commodore 
Stockton,  arrived  on  the  9th  of  June, 
conveying  A.  Ten  Eyck,  Esq.,  the  new 
commissioner  appointed  to  succeed  Mr. 
Brown,  and  Joel  Turrill,  Esq.,  United 
States  consul  for  the  Hawaiian  Islands. 
Friendly  diplomatic  relations  which  had 
been  so  long  interrupted  with  the  officers 
of  the  United  States,  were  resumed.  Mr. 
Ten  Eyck  was  the  bearer  of  a  letter  from 
the  President  of  the  United  States  to 
the  king,  which,  in  connection  with  the 
friendly  efforts  of  Commodore  Stockton, 
and  the  widely  different  policy  pursued 
by  the  successors  of  the  late  United 
States  officials,  went  a  great  xvay  to  re- 
store harmony,  and  to  heal  troubles  kept 
alive  more  from  the  violence  of  partisan 
feeling  and  disappointed  interests,  than 
from  any  important  principles  at  stake. 

Capt/Steen  Bille,  of  H.  D.  M.'s  ship 
Galathea,  on  behalf  of  the  King  of  Den- 
mark, on  the  19th  of  October,  1846,  ne- 
gotiated a  treaty  which  is  memorable  for 
being  the  first  convention  entered  into 
by  the  king  with  a  foreign  power  which 
recognized  in  all  their  amplitude  his 
rights  as  a  sovereign  ;prince.  In  this 
treaty,  juries  are  allowed  to  take  the 
course  of  the  law  of  the  land,  and  no 
limitation  to  the  revenue  of  the  kingdom 
<by  a  maximum  of  duty  is  required.  It  is 
stilus  by  piece-meal,  even  after  the  solemn 
'recognition  of  his  independence,  has  the 
•king  been  obliged  to  secure,  in  practice, 
^some  of  tine  most  common  rights  of  an 
independent  nation,  which  had  been  un- 
\wisely  yielded  up  while  he  was  an  un- 
recognized prince. 

"No  measure  tends  more  to  consolidate 
and  render  a  nation  prosperous  and  re- 
spectable than  a  sound  and  judicious 
code  jof  laws  The  chiefs  were  early 
aware  *>f  ;their  deficiency,  and  as 


as  their  new  legislative  forms  came  into 
operation,  proposed  to  execute  the  task  ; 
under  any  circumstances  a  difficult  one ; 
but  in  those  of  their  kingdom  doubly  so, 
from  the  mixed  population,  foreign  and 
native,  that  they  were  called  to  govern. 
The  first  volume  of  statute  laws  was  is- 
sued in  1846. 

The  departments  are  subdivided  into 
numerous  bureaux,  comprising  the  du- 
ties enumerated  under  their  several 
heads.  By  this  system  the  business  of 
government  and  its  machinery  have  be- 
come methodized  on  a  simple  and  not 
expensive  scale ;  for  although  the  sub- 
divisions are  numerous,  yet  one  clerk 
suffices  for  many.  The  judiciary  act 
and  the  criminal  code,  on  the  new  basis, 
are  not  yet  completed.  As  in  every 
other  step  forward  which  the  Hawaiian 
nation  has  taken,  unwarrantable  abuse 
and  unreasonable  cavil  has  been  show- 
ered upon  it  for  this,  chiefly  upon  the 
specious  pretense  that  the  system  was 
too  cumbersome  and  altogether  beyond 
its  growth.  An  impartial  examination 
will  doubtless  detect  points  which  can  be 
amended  with  benefit ;  this  is  to  be  ex- 
pected, and  the  intention  of  the  legisla- 
ture is  rather  experimentative  than  final ; 
to  feel  their  way  as  it  were  to  a  code 
simple  and  effective.  But  to  do  this  ex- 
perience must  be  acquired  in  legislation, 
and  the  practical  operation  of  laws.  In 
the  transition  of  the  nation,  with  its  rapid 
growth  from  foreign  sources,  it  has  been 
found  that  there  has  been  felt  a  want 
rather  than  an  overplus  of  system.  The 
machinery  of  government  being  of  a 
liberal  and  constitutional  character,  pro- 
vides in  itself  for  checks  on  excess  and 
remedies  for  evils.  If  "  let  alone  "  by 
foreign  powers,  there  is  ground  for  the 
belief  that  Hawaiian  legislation  will  in 
no  whit  in  character  be  behind  that  of 
numerous  new  countries,  off-shoots  of 
the  old,  now  budding  into  existence  on 
the  shores  of  the  Pacific. 

The  executive  government  was  con- 
structed as  follows:: 

His  Majesty,  King  Kamehameha  III. 
His  Highness,  Keoni  Ana,*  Premier,") 

and  Minister  of  the  Interior.  Cabinet 

R.  C.  Wyllie,  Minister  For.  Affairs,  !      Council. 
G.  P.  Judd,  "         of  Finance,     /created  Oct. 

Wm.  Richards,       "         Instruction,   |        29,  1845. 
John  Ricord,  Attorney  General,  J 


Son  of  Mr.  Young,  Kamehameha'e  favorite. 


HISTORY   OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


179 


NOBLES. 

M.  Kekauonohi. 

A.  Keliiabonui,  Chamberlain. 

Keoni  Ana,  Premier. 

Alapai. 

A.  Paki,  Judge  of  Supreme  Court. 

Konia. 

1.  Kaeo,  Judge  of  Supreme  Court. 

lona  Kapena,  Judge  of  Supreme  Court. 

Paulo  Kanoa. 

Is  amauu. 

M.  Kekuanaoa,  Governor  of  Oahu. 

W.  P.  Leleiohoku,  Governor  of  Hawaii. 

Ruta. 

Keohokalole. 

C.  Kanaina,  Judge  of  Supreme  Court. 

loane  li,  Guardian  of  Young  Chiefs. 

lona  Piikoi. 

Beniki  Na-.i.akeha. 

K.  Kapaakea. 

James  Young  Kanehoa,*  Governor  of  Maui. 

The  governors  are  honorary  members 
of  the  privy  council. 

Beside  the  four  cabinet  officers  of 
foreign  birth,  there  are  five  Americans 
and  four  Englishmen,  naturalized  sub- 
jects, commissioned  as  judges  in  foreign 
cases,  collectors,  director  of  government 
press,  heads  of  bureaux,  etc.  In  addi- 
tion to  these  are  a  number  of  clerks 
transiently  employed,  and  officers  con- 
nected with  the  several  departments,  who 
depend  upon  fees  for  their  recompense. 

In  no  one  respect  have  the  government 
shown  more  laudable  zeal  than  in  edu- 
cating the  young  chiefs,  who  by  birth 
are  destined  to  fill  important  posts.  For 
the  purpose  of  bestowing  upon  them  a 
solid  and  practical  education  in  the  Eng- 
lish language,  embracing  not  only  the 
usual  studies  pursued  in  the  better  class 
of  seminaries  in  the  United  States,  but 
to  engraft  in  their  minds  the  habits, 
thoughts,  moral  and  domestic  education 
which  children  of  their  age  and  circum- 
stances receive  in  civilized  countries,  in 
1839  they  were  taken  from  their  native 
parents  and  out  of  the  sphere  of  mere 
Hawaiian  influences,  and  incorporated 
into  a  boarding-school  under  the  charge 
of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cooke,  teachers  of  the 
American  mission.  During  the  seven 
years  the  school  has  been  established;,, 
their  progress  has  been  rapid,  and  they 
are  now  versed  in  the  common  branches 
of  an  English  education,  besides  being 
practically  acquainted  with  the  tastes, 
household  economy  and  habits  of  refined 
domestic  life.  The  annual  expense  of 
the  school  is  now  about  $5,000.  The 
number  of  scholars  fifteen. 

*  Son  of  Kamehameha's  favorite,  Mr.  Young,  of  the 
Elenora,  who  landed  in  1790,  and  died  in  1835,  at  the  ad- 
vanced age  of  93  years,  highly  respected  by  all  classes. 


Moses  Kaikioewa,  son  of  Kekuanaoa  and  Kinau,  born 

July  20,  1829,  Expectant  Governor  of  Kauni. 
Lota  Kamehameha,  SOD  of  Kekuanaoa  and  Kinau,  born 

December  11,  1830,  Expectant  Governor  of  Maui. 
Alexander  Liholiho,  son  of  Kekuanaoa  and  Kinau,  born 

Feb.  9,  1834,  heir  apparent,  by  adoption,  of  the  king. 
Victoria  Kamamalu.  daughter  of  Kekuanaoa  and  Kinau, 

born  November  1,  1838,  Premier  by  birth. 
William  C.  Lunalilo,  son  of  Kanaina  and  Kekauluohi, 

born  January  1, 1835. 
Bernice  Pauahi,  daughter  of  Paki  and  Konia,  born  Dec. 

19,  1831. 
Jane  Loeau,  daughter  of  Kalaniulumoku  and  Liliha,  born; 

1828. 
Elizabeth  Kekaniau,  daughter  of  Laanui,  born  September 

11,  1834. 
Emma  Rooke,  daughter  of  Fanny  Young.*  born  January 

2, 1836. 
Peter  Young  Kaeo,  son  of  Kaeo  and  Lahilahi,*   born 

March  4, 1836. 
James  Kaliokalani,  son  of  Paakea  and  Keohokalole,  born 

May  29, 1835. 
David  Kalakaua,  son  of  Paakea  and  Keohokalole,  born 

November  16,  1836. 
Lydia  Makaeha,  daughter  of  Paakea  and  Keohokalole, 

born  September  2,  1838. 
Mary  Paaaina. 
Kinau  Pitt,  son  of  W.  Pitt  Kalaimoku. 

The  rapid  progress  of  the  Hawaiian 
group  in  commercial  importance  is  best 
illustrated  by  their  commercial  statistics 
both  before  the  organization  of  their 
present  government  and  since,  when 
under  improved  auspices  their  value  has 
more  rapidly  developed.  The  facilities 
,  which  they  afforded  the  American  ves- 
sels engaged  in  the  lucrative  North- West 
fur  trade,  to  which  was  soon  added  the 
equally  profitable  one  of  sandal-wood, 
gave  them  such  good  repute,  that  pre- 
vious to  1820  the  hardy  whale  fishers  re- 
sorted to  them  for  recruits  and  men.  As 
early  as  1823,  from  forty  to  sixty  whale- 
ships,  mostly  American,  were  to  be  seen 
in  the  harbor  of  Honolulu  at  one  time. 

From  January,  1836,  to  December  31, 
1841,  three  hundred  and  fifty-eight  ves- 
sels belonging  to  the  United  States,  of 
which  four-fifths  were  whalers,  touched 
at  Honolulu  ;  an  average  of  seventjr-one 
and  three-fifths  annually,  besides  seven- 
teen men-of-war.  Of  English  vessels 
during  the  same  period  there  were 
eighty-two,  and  nine  men-of-war.  Those 
of  France  and  other  nations  numbered 
not  over  twenty.  The  average  annual 
imports  for  those  years  were  to  the  value 
of  $365,854,  one-half  of  which  were 
American  goods,  one-quarter  Chinese 
and  Californian,  and  the  remainder 
from  England,  Mexico,  Chile  and  other 
sources. 

In  1842,  there  arrived:  at  Honolulu 
45  merchant  vessels — l!7  English,  16 
American,  and  12  of  other  nations.  The 


*  Daughters-of-John  Young. 


180 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


imports  this  year  were  valued  at  about 
$250,000. 

During  the  same  time  there  came  44 
American,  16  English,  5  French  and  1 
Danish  whale-ships. 

In  1845,  the  imports  from  various  na- 
tions ranged  about  as  follows  : 


United  States,  . 


$245,681  40 


China, 85,500  57 


England  and  Sydney, 


75,303  04 


Oregon;     ......       34,807  48 

California,   .....         24,853  58 


Chile,   .......       16,589 

Other  countries  (including  \ 

product  of  whale-fishery  | 
and  goods,  mostly  Amer 


12 


ican,  landed  by  whale-  | 
ships.)  J 


64,206  53 


The  receipts  for  1845  include  $20,000 
restored  by  the  French. 

The  expenditures  for  1844  and  '45  in- 
clude large  appropriations  to  discharge 
the  public  debts. 

The  financial  years  commence  and 
terminate  on  April  1st.  The  year  1843 
gives  a  period  of  but  nine  months.  The 
entire  receipts  of  the  year  1846-7  are 
estimated  at  $110,000— expenditures  at 
$100,000. 

In  1842,  when  Mr.  Judd  came  into 
the  Treasury,  the  debts  of  the  govern- 
ment, including  £10,000  borrowed  of  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company  for  the  expenses 
of  the  embassy  to  Europe,  amounted  to 
$160,000.  In  1846  this  debt  had  been 
wholly  extinguished. 

Besides  the  custom  house,  the  chief 


Total, $546,941  72  j  sources  of  revenue  are  the  poll  taxes, 

Beside    merchandise,   a    considerable   land  tax'  stamps,  rents,  etc. 

amount  in  specie  is  annually  received 

from  the  Spanish  American  States. 
1846. 

United  States, ....     $325,630  00 


CHAPTER  XV. 


England, 

116929  00 

China,     

43,040  00 

Valparaiso,     

38,965  00 

Columbia  River,    .     .     . 
California,      ..... 

23,101  00 
17,040  00 

Hamburg,     

4,474  00 

Bremen,    

4,069  00  I 

Sydney,  

1  870  00 

Kamtschatka,      .... 
Other  countries  (including  ) 
oil,  bone,  etc.,)                  j 

1,087  00 
22,186  00 

Total, 


$598,382  00 


A  proportion  of  the  American  cargoes 
— say  about  one-fifth — consists  of  Eng- 
lish, French  and  German  goods,  but 
mostly  of  the  first. 

HAWAIIAN    TONNAGE. 
Year.  No.  vessels.     Tons.  Value. 

1843,  ...  10  446  $27,400 
1S44,  ...  15  775  41,000 
1546,  ....  29  1585  73,000 

REVENUE. 

1841  and  '42. — The  revenue  as  then 
collected  was  not  worth  more  than  $20,- 
000  per  annum.  1843— $35,000. 

Year.  Receipts.  Expenditures. 


1844, 

1845, 
1846, 


$64,045  55 
97,940  21 
90,110  28 


$70,537  00 
77,820  69 
87,045  16 


The  American  Mission— History  of— Progress— Policy- 
Expense— Character  and  results— Tone  of  society- 
Missionary  Pastors — Destiny  of  the  Mission — Moral 
condition  of  the  Hawaiians— Crimes— Romanism— State 
of — Comparison  with  Protestantism. 

THE  American  Mission  is  so  inter- 
woven with  the  history  of  the  Hawaiian 
Islands,  that  although  its  progress  has 
been  succinctly  noticed  in  the  preceding 
pages,  further  mention  is  necessary 
I  clearly  to  understand  its  practical  re- 
sults both  upon  the  people  and  its  own 
members.  Very  much  has  been  written 
upon  this  topic,  but  too  frequently  by 
those  interested  rather  in  confirming 
theoretic  views  than  in  portraying  plain 
truth.  As  a  well  sustained  experiment 
of  religious  philanthropy  it  deserves  crit- 
ical examination,  for  although  founded 
upon  the  plain  command,  "Go  ye  and 
teach  all  nations,"  yet  it  is  left  to  human 
wisdom  tor  organize  the  means.  Hence, 
to  arrive  at  the  soundest  conclusion  in 
a  policy  so  ordamed  by  heaven  but  left 
to  man  to  execute,  it  is  expedient  to  sift 
the  results  of  the  various  methods  em- 
ployed and  compare  them  one  with 
another,  that  we  may  arrive  at  sound 
conclusions  as  to  their  practical  effect  in 
improving  and  elevating  savage  tribes. 
The  Hawaiian  Mission  early  obtained  a 
powerful  hold  upon  the  sympathies  of 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


181 


the  religious  public  in  the  United  States, 
and  even  arrested  the  attention  of  the 
world  at  large,  in  a  much  greater  degree 
than  that  of  any  other  modern  mission. 
This  arose  from  its  isolated  position, 
rapid  success,  and  the  exaggerated  ideas 
that  got  abroad  of  the  actual  moral 
change  of  the  islanders. 

Rightly  to  appreciate  what  the  mission 
in  reality  has  effected,  the  original  de- 
graded character  of  the  islanders  should 
be  kept  constantly  in  view.  Notwith- 
standing the  favor  of  the  rulers,  the  real 
progress  of  the  mission  in  the  actual 
conversion  of  the  people  was  slow.  In 
1825,  they  numbered  but  ten  native 
church  members ;  in  1832,  577.  In 
1837,  there  had  been  received  into  the 
church  1,259.  In  1840,  their  numbers 
had  swelled  to  20,120,  in  the  short  space 
of  three  years,  and  in  1843  had  reached 
23,804,  about  the  present  standard. 

Under  the  present  system  of  common 
schools,  sustained  by  the  government  at 
an  annual  expense  of  between  $20,000 
and  $30,000,  partly  money  and  partly  by 
the  labor  tax,  there  are  15,393  scholars, 
instructed  in  the  elementary  branches  of 
reading,  writing,  arithmetic  and  geogra- 
phy. Besides  these  schools  the  Amer- 
ican Mission  established,  in  1831,  a 
seminary  for  the  higher  branches  at  La- 
hainaluna;  368  pupils  have  been  received 
and  taught  sacred  and  universal  geogra- 
phy, sacred  and  profane  history,  gram- 
mar, algebra,  geometry,  trigonometry, 
navigation,  mensuration,  drawing,  music, 
etc.  Of  its  graduates  108  have  become 
teachers  of  common  schools,  and  45  are 
variously  employed  by  government ;  the 
remainder  are  serviceable  to  themselves 
and  the  people  in  various  ways.  The 
expense  of  this  institution  thus  far,  be- 
side valuable  gratuities  bestowed  by  the 
government,  has  been  $70,000.  There 
is  a  boarding  school  for  girls  on  Maui, 
under  the  charge  of  the  missionaries, 
averaging  50  pupils,  who  are  instructed 
in  the  common  branches  of  education, 
and  in  sewing,  knitting,  spinning,  etc., 
with  particular  reference  to  the  inculca- 
tion of  good  domestic  habits.  $20,000 
have  been  expended  on  this  school. 

On  Hawaii,  there  is  another  on  a 
smaller  scale,  containing  20  pupils,  and 
one  for  boys  with  upwards  of  50  scholars. 


Exclusive  of  aid  from  government  and 
individuals,  the  mission  have  expended 
on  these  $13,000. 

Four  newspapers  in  the  Hawaiian 
tongue  have  been  sustained  by  the  mis- 
sionaries ;  the  first,  "  Lama  Hawaii," 
was  commenced  in  1833;  the  present, 
"Ka  Elele,"  besides  much  religious  mat- 
ter, gives  a  summary  of  general  news, 
publishes  government  notices,  and  af- 
fords scope  for  the  literary  efforts  of  the 
natives  themselves,  some  of  whom  man- 
ifest respectable  powers  of  thought  and 
composition. 

It  is  computed  that  70,000  of  the  pop- 
ulation have  learned  to  read,  and  65,- 
444,000  printed  pages  have  been  issued 
from  the  mission  press,  embracing  among 
other  works  two  complete  editions,  of 
10,000  each,  of  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
three  of  the  New  Testament,  amounting 
to  30,000  copies,  Worcester's  Sacred 
Geography,  Universal  Geography,  Geo- 
graphical Questions,  Scripture  Chronol- 
ogy and  History,  Animals  of  the  Earth, 
with  a  chart,  History  of  Beasts,  Hawai- 
ian History,  Church  History,  Mathemat- 
ics, embracing  Geometry,  Trigonometry, 
Mensuration,  Surveying  and  Navigation, 
Colburn's  Algebra,  Anatomy,  Wayland's 
Moral  Philosophy,  Colburn's  Intellectual 
Arithmetic,  Tract  on  Astronomy,  Maps 
of  Universal  Geography,  and  Bunyan's 
Pilgrim's  Progress. 

The  works  published  have  been  alto- 
gether of  a  devotional  or  educational 
class.  More  interest  would  have  been 
awakened  could  some  others  of  a  less 
grave  and  more  historic  character  been 
included. 

In  enumerating  the  actual  amount  of 
service  performed  by  the  American  Mis- 
sion, there  is  much  which,  although  not 
figuring  in  statistics,  has  had  an  impor- 
tant bearing  upon  the  welfare  of  the 
people,  and  should  not  be  overlooked. 
Some  of  the  missionaries  had  acquired 
in  youth  a  practical  knowledge  of  agri- 
culture, general  business,  or  the  mechan- 
ical trades.  This  information  has  been 
combined  with  religious  instruction,  and 
quite  a  number  of  natives  through  their 
auspices  have  become  tolerable  masons, 
printers,  book-binders,  tailors,  painters, 
engravers  and  carpenters,  and  gained 
some  little  skill  in  various  other  arts,  be- 


182 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


sides  receiving  much  useful  information 
in  the  culture  of  their  farms  and  raising 
of  stock.  The  efforts  of  the  missionaries 
in  these  respects,  though  secondary  to 
their  grand  object,  have  been  indefat- 
igable ;  and  their  wives  also  have  ex- 
erted much  influence  in  instructing  the 
females  and  in  improving  their  house- 
holds. These  facts  are  the  more  worthy 
of  mention  because  a  contrary  policy  has 
been  charged  upon  them,  and  the  results 
of  their  labors  in  these  respects  are  not 
perceptible  without  an  examination  into 
their  immediate  fields  of  labor.  So  far 
as  lay  in  their  power  they  have  repaid 
commerce  the  aid  she  afforded  them, 
by  a  succession  of  well-directed  individ- 
ual efforts  to  induce  systematic  industry 
among  the  people,  and  to  enlarge  their 
usefulness  by  bestowing  upon  them  the 
first  fruits  of  civilization.  Their  conduct 
however  in  this,  as  towards  the  gov- 
ernment, has  been  cautious  and  unsys- 
tematic, varying  according  to  individual 
principle  or  temperament.  They  have 
ever  leaned  towards  screening  the  na- 
tion from  a  general  influx  of  whites 
upon  their  lands ;  and  when  leases  have 
been  obtained  through  their  influence,  it 
has  been  given  rather  in  the  belief  that 
the  leasor  from  his  character  for  honest 
enterprise  and  moral  worth  would  be  of 
an  advantage  to  the  nation,  than  that 
they  were  doing  him  a  service.  So  far 
as  a  tolerably  intimate  acquaintance  with 
them  goes,  I  am  enabled  to  say,  in  con- 
tradiction of  a  charge  often  made,  that 
although  in  their  opinions  they  may  have 
been  too  much  swayed  by  sectarian  bias, 
yet  they  have  ever  been  favorable  to  see- 
ing white  men  of  good  reputation  enlist 
themselves  among  the  nation,  prepared 
to  develop  the  resources  of  the  soil,  and 
to  afford  a  suitable  example  of  industrial 
enterprise  to  the  people.  The  only  "dog 
in  manger  "  policy  that  can  be  charged 
home  upon  them,  is  the  desire  to  pre- 
vent the  permanent  settlement  of  doubt- 
ful characters,  and  the  introduction  of 
distilleries. 

The  expenses  of  the  American  Mis- 
sion swelled  from  $  13,250,  in  1819,  to 
$63,521.09,  in  1837,  and  since  have 
averaged  about  $36,000  annually,  mak- 
ing a  total  of  nearly  $700,000,* includ- 
ing $50,000  from  the  American  Bible 


Society,  and  $19,774.51  from  the  Tract 
Society.  The  amount  expended  shows 
the  deep  interest  felt  by  the  religious 
public  of  the  United  States  in  its  sup- 
port, and  the  scale  on  which  it  is  now 
sustained  is  very  different  from  that  of 
the  first  year  of  its  existence.  Then  the 
habitations  of  the  missionaries  were  but 
slight  improvements  of  those  of  the  na- 
tives ;  their  household  furniture  sparse 
and  simple.  The  females  were  subject- 
ed to  many  discomforts,  annoyances,  and 
•even  privations  affecting  their  health, 
when  compared  with  what  they  had  been 
accustomed  to  in  their  New  England 
homes.  This,  however,  did  not  last 
long.  The  benevolence  that  sent  them 
to  heathen  ground  was  equal  to  provid- 
ing them  with  all  the  necessaries  and 
most  of  the  comforts  of  life.  Suitable 
habitations  were  furnished ;  stores  were 
shipped  from  the  United  States,  physi- 
cians and  secular  agents  sent  out,  until 
their  plan  of  operations  has  settled  into 
a  most  efficient  and  well  provided  sys- 
tem, admirably  adapted  to  the  object  in 
view,  expensive  in  the  gross  though  eco- 
nomic in  detail.  The  American  Board 
of  Foreign  Missions  have  now  employed 
at  their  various  stations  on  the  islands, 
25  clergymen,  with  their  families,  2 
physicians,  8  teachers,  3  secular  agents, 
1  printer  and  1  book-binder,  numbering 
in  all  212;  a  few  of  the  children  how- 
ever being  in  the  United  States.  Forty 
permanent  dwelling  houses,  two  printing 
offices  and  a  bindery  have  been  erected, 
besides  large  outlays  in  school  houses 
and  churches.  The  dwelling  houses  are 
of  wood,  adobie  or  stone,  costing  from 
$1,000  to  $3,000  each,  and  in  general 
convenience  and  comfort  are  not  inferior 
to  any  class  on  the  islands.  They  com- 
pare favorably  with  the  better  style  of 
farm  houses  in  New  England.  These 
are  furnished  plainly  though  abundantly, 
and  in  a  few  there  exists  pretensions  to 
something  more  assuming  in  the  shape 
of  pianos,  cabinets  of  curiosities,  and 
articles  combining  the  decorative  with 
the  useful.  Some  of  the  families  aspire 
to  Yankee  "  Dearborns,"  or  wagons,  for 
a  social  drive,  and  are  enabled  either 
through  the  liberality  of  their  friends  or 
the  friends  of  the  mission,  to  have  sum- 
mer retreats  in  the  valleys  or  mountains, 


BISTORT  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


or  to  journey,  when  enfeebled  by  labor, 
to  other  stations.  The  nominal  expense 
of  each  family  is  from  $400  to  $700  per 
annum,  but  to  this  must  be  added  house 
rent,  physicians'  bills,  merchandise  from 
the  mission  depository  at  cost,  the  use  of 
herds  of  cattle  and  other  means,  which 
in  Honolulu  render  a  missionary  living 
equivalent  to  from  SI, 500  to  $2,000 
per  annum.*  Most  of  the  families  have 
been  provided  with  small  tracts  of  land, 
from  which  they  are  enabled  not  only  to 
add  to  their  domestic  comforts,  but  to 
be  serviceable  to  the  natives  by  supply- 
ing them  with  varieties  of  foreign  fruits 
and  vegetables,  and  encouraging  them 
by  example  in  practical  agriculture  or 
gardening.  It  cannot  be  questioned  that 
the  American  Mission  at  the  Hawaiian 
Islands,  whatever  might  have  been  its 
earlier  condition,  is  now  sustained  on  a 
scale  so  liberal,  with  such  ample  provis- 
ions for  all  the  ordinary  emergencies  of 
life,  as  to  leave  its  members  nothing  to 
regret  in  external  comfort  in  comparison 
with  clergymen  in  the  United  States. 

In  attaining  this  outward  prosperity, 
the  mission  has  but  kept  pace  with  the 
growth  of  civilization  about  them.  This 
happy  result  is  in  great  measure  attrib- 
utable to  their  own  energies,  and  to  the 
moral  stamp  and  intellectual  refinement 
they  have  been  instrumental  in  placing 
upon  foreign  society.  Puritanical  and 
arbitrary  as  both  may  appear,  they  have 
created  a  standard  of  public  sentiment, 
which  if  it  border  upon  ascetism,  is  still 
highly  favorable  to  the  purer  amenities 
of  social  life,  and  equally  happy  in  its 
reflex  upon  the  growing  national  charac- 
ter. The  Pacific  elsewhere  affords  noth- 
ing in  tone  comparable  with  it.  The 
natural  effect  of  this  change  of  position 
on  the  part  of  the  mission,  from  the  time 
when  they  were  involved  as  it  were  in 
one  continual  struggle  against  immoral- 
ity and  contumely  for  an  existence,  to 
the  present  period,  when  prosperous  in 
worldly  circumstances,  they  have  come 
off  victors  over  vice  and  traduction,  and 
now  stand  forth  to  the  world  eminent  in 
philanthropy  and  the  creators  of  a  very 

*  That  this  expense  may  not  he  considered  as  extrava- 
gance or  pretensions  to  a  style  inconsistent  with  an  econ- 
omy proper  to  their  profession,  it  should  be  stated  that 
the  current  expenses  of  living  at  the  Hawaiian  Islands  are 
more  than  100  per  cent  higher  than  in  the  United  States. 


183 

great  degree  of  the  ruling  public  senti- 
ment, is  that  which  inevitably  attends 
human  nature  in  a  transition  from  ad- 
versity to  prosperity.  Their  fruit  budded 
and  blossomed  amid  the  frosts  and  snows 
of  early  spring ;  hardy  in  its  origin  and 
tenacious  of  life,  it  grew  amid  storm  and 
sunshine;  alternately  chilled  by  the  cold 
blast,  and  wilted  by  fierce  heat,  it  flour- 
ished through  a  long  and  variable  sum- 
mer until  ripened  by  the  favoring  au- 
tumnal sun  into  the  mellow  fruit,  it  is 
now  ready  to  drop,  and  yielding  up  its 
seeds,  give  birth  to  new  existence.  Such 
seems  to  be  the  present  position  of  the 
American  Mission.  They  have  baptized 
the  nation  into  the  fold  of  Christendom. 
All  the  outward  signs  and  forms  of  re- 
vealed gospel  are  upon  it.  The  Hawai- 
ian Islands  no  longer  remain  heathen 
ground.  The  people  have  been  in  faith 
"  born  again."  The  labor  remaining  is 
to  affect  the  individual.  Hence  the  en- 
tire position  of  the  mission  is  altered. 
In  its  primary  object  it  has  ceased  to  be 
missionary,  and  to  be  effective  in  the 
greater  object  of  purifying  the  heart,  it 
must  assume  a  new  feature.  Heretofore 
it  has  been  a  machine  apart  from  the 
people,  controlled,  directed  and  kept  a 
going  by  foreign  agency.  Now,  if  it 
would  perfect  its  work  it  should  implant 
itself  among  them,  become  of  them,  self- 
sustained  and  self-controlled.  In  no 
other  way  can  it  be  more  productive  of 
usefulness  to  the  coming  generation. 
To  effect  this,  the  parent  society  in  the 
United  States  should  allow  to  each  fam- 
ily the  ownership  of  the  immediate  prop- 
erty around  them  on  condition  of  their, 
ceasing  to  be  missionaries  and  becoming 
pastors.  To  this  the  government  could 
add  grants  of  land  for  glebes,  and  in  the 
present  condition  of  the  country  there  are 
but  few  parishes  inadequate  with  these 
aids  to  support  their  clergymen.  The 
present  system  is  an  unnecessary  bur- 
den to  the  religious  public  in  the  United 
States,  diverts  funds  from  other  fields, 
and  dries  up  rather  than  stimulates  the 
benevolent  energies  of  the  Hawaiians 
themselves,  by  making  them  the  recip- 
ients of  bounty  when  they  are  rapidly 
arriving  at  a  condition  to  sustain  institu- 
tions now  properly  their  own.  By  iden- 
tifying themselves  with  the  nation,  the 


184 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


missionaries  will  acquire  a  deeper  hold  ' 
upon  the  hearts  of  the  people,  as  by  em- 
barking in  the  same  vessel,  and  depend- 
ing upon  the  same  means,  they  make 
common  cause  with  them.  Additional 
motives  are  to  be  found  in  the  provision 
thus  secured  for  their  families ;  the  set- 
tlement of  their  children  around  them 
by  fixing  them  permanently  in  the  land 
of  their  nativity;  the  impetus  to  be  given 
to  civilization  by  the  creation  of  some 
forty  independent  Protestant  parishes, 
each  of  which  would  be  a  nucleus  of 
morals  and  industry  and  a  stimulant  to 
enterprise  and  benevolence  by  making 
the  actual  good  thus  to  be  derived  de- 
pendent upon  the  natives  themselves. 
Under  such  circumstances,  with  scope 
for  the  natural  desires  of  the  human 
heart  in  receiving  and  accumulating  the 
fruits  of  industry,  in  directing  the  moral 
and  physical  energies  of  their  parishion- 
ers amenable  only  to  them,  in  providing 
for  their  families,  without  the  painful 
prospect  of  an  early  separation,  with  the 
sentiment  of  an  honest  self-interest  that 
would  arise  in  witnessing  the  labors  of 
their  own  hands  made  their  -own  by  right 
of  property,  the  missionaries  would  cease 
their  longings  for  a  return  to  their  na- 
tive land,  their  anxious  forebodings  for 
the  future,  and  become  in  reality  chil- 
dren of  the  soil.  The  importance  of  an 
arrangement  by  which  so  desirable  a 
class  of  citizens  may  be  permanently  se- 
cured to  the  country  is  apparent  from  the 
fact,  that  should  their  children  continue 
to  increase  in  the  same  ratio  as  since  the 
commencement  of  the  mission,  in  100 
years  their  descendants  would  amount 
to  59,535. 

One  missionary  has  already  seceded 
from  the  -society  and  become  a  Hawai- 
ian pastor,  supported  solely  by  his  par- 
ish, and  that  one  of  the  poorest  on  the 
group.  Another  has  received  the  ap- 
pointment of  judge,  while  two  others, 
Messrs.  Judd  and  Richards,  have  for 
several  years  filled  important  positions 
in  the  government.  These  cases  point 
to  the  destiny  of  the  mission.  In  no 
other  way  can  they  so  effectually  com- 
plete their  work. 

The  amount  of  contributions  by  the 
natives,  under  the  present  system,  for  ob- 
jects connected  with  moral  and  religious 


improvement,  is  already  very  considera- 
ble. They  have  erected  many  churches 
costing  from  $1,000  to  $33,000,  as  did 
the  large  stone  church  at  Honolulu, 
From  1837  to  1844  their  miscellaneous 
contributions  amounted  to  $19,987. 

The  religious  and  educational  statis- 
tics previously  given,  would,  without  ex- 
planation, mislead  as  to  the  actual  char- 
acter of  the  people,  if  the  reader  base 
his  ideas  upon  the  standard  applicable 
in  Europe  and  the  United  States. 

Numerically,  church  members  bear  a 
larger  proportion  throughout  the  Hawai- 
ian Islands  to  non-communicants,  than 
in  the  United  States ;  an  equal  outward 
attention  is  exhibited  towards  the  observ- 
ance of  its  ceremonies ;  but  it  would  be 
as  incorrect,  from  these  facts,  to  place 
their  moral  and  religious  standard  upon 
a  level  with  that  of  the  American  people, 
as  from  the  number  of  common  schools, 
the  pupils  that  attend  them,  and  the 
studies  nominally  pursued  among  the 
same  people,  to  estimate  their  element- 
ary knowledge,  and  their  system  of  edu- 
cation as  highly  as  the  American.  Yet 
statistics  by  themselves  would  give  that 
result,  were  the  actual  conditions  and 
physiological  differences  between  the 
two  races  kept  from  view.  What  were 
the  Hawaiians  originally,  and  what  were 
the  ancestors  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  ?  The 
one  a  branch  of  the  Malay  family  of  the 
human  race,  the  third  in  point  of  intel- 
ligence, delighting  in  sensuality,  false- 
hood, theft  and  treachery;  with  not  even 
a  fictitious  code  of  honor,  which,  as  with 
the  Bedouins  and  American  Indians, 
might  afford  some  guarantee  of  personal 
security ;  their  chief  characteristic  a  love 
of  maritime  and  warlike  adventure,  a 
warm,  excitable  imagination  and  feeble 
intellect,  though  not  untractable  dispo- 
sition while  their  passions  were  not 
aroused.  When  otherwise,  their  tender 
mercies  were  in  literal  truth  "  cruelty." 
Added  to  these,  a  superstition  skillfully 
concocted  and  strongly  sustained  by  the 
few  for  the  degradation  and  subservience 
of  the  many.  The  others,  off-shoots  of 
the  Caucasian  race  ;  cruel  heathens,  but 
bold,  free  and  intelligent;  sacrificing  hu- 
man victims  in  obedience  to  their  priests, 
but,  in  domestic  -relations,  chaste  and  af- 
feQtionate.  If  their  animal  passions  were 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


185 


strong  and  conspicuous,  their  virtues  also 
shone  out  brightly,  and  they  proved  them- 
selves moral  and  intellectual.  Christian- 
ity introduced  into  soils  so  widely  differ- 
ent, must,  humanly  speaking,  flourish  in 
accordance  with  the  relative  fitness  of 
either  for  its  support  and  increase.  And 
it  has  been  so.  In  England  and  Amer- 
ica, rooting  itself  in  the  superior  senti- 
ments and  intelligence  of  the  people,  it 
now  exhibits  itself  in  its  fairest  and 
purest  light;  transported  to  the  Hawai- 
ian Islands  by  Anglo-Saxon  minds,  it  is 
there  sustained  by  the  strength  it  brought 
with  it.  Institutions  and  improvements 
are  all  borrowed  from  their  instructors ; 
by  them  and  their  ancestors  they  were 
originated  and  perfected.  The  Anglo- 
Saxon  race  are  capable  of  teaching ;  the 
Malay  of  being  taught ;  the  one  by  its 
own  native  energies  can  conquer  and 
rule  the  world ;  the  very  existence  and 
advancement  of  the  latter  is  dependent 
upon  the  forbearance  and  benevolence  of 
the  former.  Such  are  the  natural  differ- 
ences between  the  two,  and  these  must 
be  borne  in  mind,  if  a  just  opinion  of  the 
capacity  of  the  Hawaiians  for  civilization 
and  Christianity  is  to  be  formed.  They 
should  be  judged  by  the  standard  appli- 
cable to  their  position  in  the  human  fam- 
ily, and  not  by  our  own. 

There  is  but  little  doubt  that,  although 
a  majority  of  the  converted  natives  do 
not  conform  strictly  to  their  vows,  yet  in 
consequence  of  them  they  are  a  better 
people.  They  furnish  a  restraint  which 
nothing  else  could  supply.  The  conduct 
which  would  bring  censure  upon  an 
American  Christian,  should  not  upon  a 
Hawaiian ;  their  temperaments,  knowl- 
edge and  circumstances  are  widely  dif- 
ferent, and  they  are  not  to  be  balanced  in 
the  same  scale.  Of  him  to  whom  much 
is  given,  much  will  be  required. 

A  moral  sentiment,  founded  more  upon 
a  classification  of  certain  actions  either 
as  evil  or  as  good,  and  their  attendant 
punishments  or  rewards,  than  upon  any 
definite  ideas  of  sin  and  virtue  considered 
in  their  relations  to  moral  purity,  and  the 
love  of  the  Father,  pervades  the  nation. 
With  the  more  enlightened  something 
superior  to  this  prevails.  Consequently, 
as  in  older  christianized  communities,  a 
man  enjoys  respect  in  proportion  to  his 
24 


moral  qualifications.  Vice-  is  condemned 
and  virtue  applauded.  Many,  of  course, 
are  to  be  found  more  fond  of  a  good 
name,  than  of  the  means  necessary  for 
its  attainment.  Publicly  they  are  one 
being,  privately  another.  The  very  fact 
of  the  necessity  of  the  deception,  shows 
a  great  advancement  in  moral  sentiment 
since  the  days  of  Liholiho,  and  instead 
of  being  considered  a  reproach  to  the 
missionaries,  should  be  hailed  as  a  favor- 
able symptom  of  their  labors ;  the  dawn 
of  further  improvement.  In  humanity, 
care  for  the  sick  and  aged,  their  domes- 
tic relations,  honesty,  temperance  and 
systematic  industry,  there  has  been  great 
advancement.  From  a  warlike,  treacher- 
ous and  cruel  people,  they  have  become 
mild,  tractable,  and  desirous  of  knowl- 
edge. The  intelligent  observer  will  find 
much  in  their  present  character  to  grat- 
ify him,  and  more  to  surprise,  when  he 
contrasts  them  with  what  they  were  but 
a  score  of  years  since.  But  he  who  goes 
among  them,  his  imagination  picturing 
a  nation  changed  from  brutal  savages, 
by  the  Spirit  of  God,  to  guileless  Chris- 
tians, worshiping  Jehovah  in  all  the  in- 
nocency  and  strength  of  a  first  love,  their 
family  altars  emblems  of  purity  and  hap- 
piness, their  congregations  simple  and 
sincere,  and  their  dispositions  and  de- 
portment refined  to  the  high  standard  of 
Christian  excellence  in  his  own  country, 
will  be  sadly  disappointed. 

It  is  still  difficult  to  make  the  natives 
understand  the  nature  of  truth.  They 
have  been  so  accustomed,  from  their 
earliest  years,  to  habits  of  deception,  that 
with  very  many,  perhaps  the  majority,  it 
may  be  doubted  whether  any  other  sen- 
sation arises  from  the  detection  of  a  false- 
hood than  mortification  at  being  discov- 
ered. In  no  other  point  are  they  more 
obtuse,  but  this  moral  bluntness  is  grad- 
ually wearing  away.  Licentiousness  is 
a  chief  vice  of  the  nation  ;  not  that  they 
are  much  worse  in  this  respect  than  na- 
tions generally  residing  within  the  trop- 
ics, but  it  continues  to  be  their  most 
prominent  trait.  A  few  years  ago,  in  its 
Protean  forms,  it  was  common  to  all,  and 
as  undisguised  as  the  light  of  day.  No\v 
it  hides  its  head,  and  seeks  a  new  gar- 
ment to  conceal  its  foul  markings.  The 
following  table  of  crime  for  Oahu,  will 


186 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


serve  to  show  the  proportion  of  other  of- 
fences to  those  of  sensuality.  It  is  taken 
from  the  Kumu  Hawaii,  of  January  16, 
1S39,  a  native  paper,  but  the  period  em- 
braced in  the  report  is  not  given.  And 
it  should  be  recollected  that  but  a  small 
proportion  of  the  latter  offences  are  ever 
detected  or  exposed.  A  number  of  for- 
eigners are  embraced  in  the  list,  chiefly 
for  riot,  mutiny  and  desertion. 

OFFENCES. 

Manslaughter,     ..........      4 

Theft, .        48 

Riot, .32 

False  witness, 48 

Desertion, 30 

Mutiny, ,.    .     .        15 

Seduction, 18 

Lewdness, 81 

Adultery, 246 


Total, 


522 


Another  table  of  purely  native  cases 
for  Honolulu,  taken  from  the  records  of 
the  "Inferior  Court"  from  January  1, 
1846,  to  December  4  of  the  same  year, 
gives  the  following  striking  results : 


MEN.     WOMEN.      TOT. 


Adultery,  fornication,      126  127  253 

Theft 43  3  46 

Gambling 35  3  38 

Desecration  of  Sabbath,    20  8  38 

Reviling  language,  .     .     12  2  14 
Heathenish  practices,          314 

Assault  and  battery,     .7  1  8 

Drunkenness,   ...          6  ..  6 

Furious  riding,  ...       6  ..  6 

Rape 2  ..  2 

Interference  with  police,     3  ..  3 

Street  walking, 4  4 

Slander, I  ..  1 

Passing  false  coin,  .     .       1  ..  1 

Desertion  of  husbands,        ..  3  3 

Total,  ....     275     152    427 

The  above  table  shows  a  conviction  of 
427  cases  out  of  a  population  of  about 
9,000.  To  these  should  be  added  121 
others,  tried  before  the  police  court, 
making  in  all  rather  more  than  600  cases 
for  1846.  Of  the  121,  38  were  for  licen- 
tiousness and  43  for  stealing.  But  few 
occur  for  fighting,  the  Hawaiians  being 
a  very  peaceable  people.  A  great  deal 
of  petty  thieving  exists,  particularly  to- 


|  wards  foreigners,  to  steal  from  whom  is 
not  viewed  so  disreputable  as  from  them- 
selves. The  standard  of  morality,  it  will 
be  seen,  is  low,  particularly  among  the 
men  ;  but  crimes  are  rare.  There  have 
been  but  five  executions  for  three  mur- 
ders for  ten  years. 

It  is  incontrovertible  that  there  yet 
exists  in  the  nation  a  large  body  of  peo- 
ple who  are  equally  disposed  to  religious 
rites,  or  to  acts  of  a  different  character, 
as  may  be  most  accordant  to  the  taste  of 
those  whom  they  wish  to  gratify.  An- 
other generation  must  arise,  with  better 
homes  and  more  civil  and  religious  ad- 
vantages, before  the  habits  of  the  old  are 
sufficiently  eradicated.  While  evidence 
for  the  more  favorable  view  of  mission- 
ary labor,  to  a  partial  investigator,  ap- 
pears conclusive,  ample  grounds  for  the 
opposite  opinion  exist.  The  truth  lies 
in  neither  extreme.  The  friends  of  hu- 
i  manity  have  just  cause  to  be  grateful 
i  that  so  much  has  been  accomplished,  and 
should  labor  earnestly  that  the  remain- 
ing dark  spots  may  be  wholly  effaced. 

Romanism  has  gained  considerably  in 
numbers  since  its  entire  toleration,  but 
without  affecting  the  Protestant  churches 
materially.  The  latter  perhaps  were 
never  more  sound  and  flourishing  than 
at  present,  while  the  former  have  made 
many  converts  among  the  class  ever  ad- 
verse to  the  principles  and  restraints  of 
their  American  teachers.  Over  these, 
its  influence  has  undoubtedly  been  use- 
fully extended.  The  Protestants  report 
270  churches  and  school  houses,  used  as 
places  of  worship.  The  Romanists  104, 
with  a  total  population  attending  them, 
or  supposed  to  be  under  their  influence, 
of  nearly  14,000.  By  a  similar  com- 
putation, more  than  80,000  Protestants 
would  be  found  on  the  islands,  but  in 
these  gross  computations  great  allowance 
should  be  made  for  those  alike  indiffer- 
ent to  religious  rites  of  any  kind,  and 
who  are  equally  fair  subjects  for  the  re- 
ligious zeal  of  both.  The  national  re- 
ligion, as  understood  in  the  sense  of  that 
received  by  the  rulers,  the  most  intelli- 
gent of  the  people  and  the  vast  majority 
of  all  classes,  is  Protestantism  in  the 
form  of  a  mild  Presbyterianism  as  prac- 
ticed in  New  England  churches.  From 
all  that  has  yet  appeared,  although  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


187 


Romanists  will  undoubtedly  become  a  | 
respectable  and  even  flourishing  sect, ! 
yet  the  system  and  creed  first  implanted  I 
in  the  nation  seems  likely  to  continue  ; 
and  strengthen,  subject  only  to  such  : 
modifications  as  Protestantism  itself  is  | 
undergoing  elsewhere. 

The  Romanists  have  shown  a  credita- 
ble zeal  for  education  and  have  enrolled 
2,800  pupils,  besides  600  children  who 
do  not  attend  school.  In  1846  they  com- 
menced a  high  school  at  Koolau,  Oahu. 
The  Rev.  Abbe  Maigret  has  a  select 
school  at  Honolulu,  embracing  several 
hundred  scholars,  who  manifest  a  toler- 
able proficiency  in  the  common  branches  ! 
of  education.  The  French  priests  in  the 
commencement  of  their  career  pursue  a 
widely  different  policy  from  the  Amer-j 
ican  missionaries  in  regard  to  the  econ- 1 
omy  of  their  operations.  Which  is  the  ; 
better  adapted  for  solely  religious  objects 
it  would  be  difficult  to  determine.  The  | 
Frenchman  in  his  clerical  celibacy  can  ' 
well  afford  to  be  economic  ;  but  he  does  i 
more  ;  rejecting  the  softening  influences  j 
of  domestic  life,  he  equally  disdains  its 
comforts  and  refinements,  and  putting 
himself  upon  a  par  with  the  native  whom 
he  has  come  to  instruct,  partakes  of  his 
coarse  fare,  sleeps  on  his  coarse  mats, 
and  in  his  philanthropic  tours,  makes 
himself,  so  far  as  the  mere  fellowship  of 
life  is  concerned,  one  of  them.  It  would 
appear  to  be  his  policy  to  gain  his  neo- 
phytes' confidence  by  descending  to  near- 
ly their  level.  Hardship  and  frugality 
with  him  are  essential  to  his  cause,  and 
he  cheerfully  submits  to  a  mode  of  living  j 
and  a  solitary  routine  of  services  which 
would  appall  his  Protestant  brother,  ac- 
customed as  he  is  from  childhood  to  rely 
upon  the  amenities  of  the  social  circle, 
and  whose  faith  embraces  the  promise  of 
the  things  of  this  life  as  well  as  those  of 
the  life  to  come.  The  Romanist  loses 
sight  of  himself  in  the  one  great  object 
of  aggrandizing  the  holy  mother  church 
and  bringing  the  entire  world  under  her 
ecclesiastical  sway.  He  is  but  a  unit  in 
a  vast  body,  whose  centre  lies  elsewhere. 
Educated  to  passive  intellectual  obedi- 
ence and  physical  self-denial,  if  to  these 
he  adds  a  holy  zeal  and  perfect  faith,  he 
makes  a  most  effective  religious  agent, 
and  there  is  nothing  surprising  in  his 


contempt  of  the  common  pursuits  and  de- 
sires of  mankind.  Neither  is  it  strange 
that  the  Protestant  missionary  should 
cling  to  those  ties  which,  by  education 
and  faith,  with  him  constitute  a  part  of 
his  religion.  The  family  he  brings  with 
him  to  his  field  of  labor,  serves  to  teach 
others  to  be  faithful  husbands  and  affec- 
tionate fathers.  He  desires  to  give  a 
practical  example  to  the  heathen,  of  a 
well  directed  Christian  household,  as  a 
manifestation  of  those  blessings  which 
here  attend  religion  and  virtue.  His  de- 
sire is  not  to  go  down  to  the  native,  but 
to  raise  the  native  up  to  him.  To  him 
there  is  more  of  true  religion  in  practi- 
cing the  duties  and  refinements  of  do- 
mestic life  than  in  denying  them.  Thus 
by  their  very  creeds  the  Romanist  and 
Protestant  commence  their  work  at  ex- 
tremes. The  one  as  it  were  without 
scrip  or  coat,  without  wife  or  child,  in- 
ured to  toil  and  educated  to  repress  the 
natural  emotions  of  the  heart,  throws 
himself  boldly  into  the  field  of  warfare 
without  counting  its  cost ;  bound  by  no 
ties  except  those  of  his  order,  having  no 
hopes  except  of  ecclesiastical  advance- 
ment here,  or  spiritual  rewa-rd  ^hereafter, 
he  becomes  an  efficient,  uncompromising 
soldier  of  the  cross,  to  be  deterred  at  no 
obstacles,  to  be  appalled  at  no  danger, 
and  to  shrink  from  no  means  of  compass- 
ing his  object.  The  other  counting  him- 
self a  disciple  of  Jesus,  takes  his  Instruc- 
tions direct  from  His  word;  recognizes 
no  medium  between  himself  and  heaven  ; 
esteems  it  gospel-wise  to  provide  both 
scrip  and  coat,  purse  and  wife ;  carries 
with  him  to  combat  with  the  principle  of 
evil,  all  the  aids  to  good  that  flow  from 
the  virtuous  relations  of  life  and  intimate 
connection  with  his  fellow-men.  The 
Romanist  brings  an  adoring  multitude 
before  the  decorated  altars  of  his  church 
and  enkindles  emotion  by  appeals  to 
their  visible  senses,  directing  their  sym- 
pathies through  the  pictured  sufferings 
of  holy  men  to  the  cause  for  which  they 
died.  The  Protestant  sanctifies  the  do- 
mestic affections  by  lighting  up  an  altar 
of  purity  in  the  heart.  He  desires  to 
make  the  world  within  to  correspond 
with  the  world  without  and  both  to 
perform  their  mission  of  love  from  the 
Father.  Intellectually  we  may  admire 


188 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


the  stern,  self-denying  discipline  of  the 
disciple  of  Rome,  but  mind  and  soul 
unite  in  proclaiming  that  best  suited  for 
man  which,  while  it  leads  him  to  a  ra- 
tional use  of  the  gifts  of  this  life,  best 
prepares  him  for  the  enjoyments  of  that 
to  come. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

"  Belgian  Contract" — Messrs.  Richards  and  Brinsmade's 
transactions  in  Belgium — Mr.  Richards'  Commission — 
"Statutes  of  Royal  Community" — Failure  of  Belgian 
tcherne — Debts  of  Ladd  &  Co. — Proposition  and  threats 
of  Mr.  Hooper — Return  of  Mr.  Brinsmade  to  England — 
United  States— Oahu— Suit  vs.  Hawaiian  Government 
— Arbitration. 

CONNECTED  with  the  embassy  of 
Messrs.  Haalilio  and  Richards  to  Eu- 
rope, was  the  so  styled  "  Belgian  Con- 
tract," growing  out  of  the  efforts  of  Mr. 
Brinsmade  for  the  sale  of  his  lease  from 
the  king,  mentioned  in  chapter  12.  This 
scheme  was  so  intimately  interwoven 
with  the  political  affairs  and  prospects  of 
the  kingdom  from  the  period  of  its  incep- 
tion in  1843  until  its  final  termination 
in  1847,  as,  with  the  singular  suit  which 
sprung  from  it,  to  make  an  important 
chapter  in  Hawaiian  history.  Unfortu- 
nately, the  labors  of  Messrs.  Haalilio 
and  Richards  were  not  confined  solely  to 
their  diplomatic  agency,  and  the  partic- 
ular objects  of  their  mission,  as  specified 
in  a  power  of  attorney  from  the  king  to 
Mr.  Richards.  They  were  persuaded  by 
Mr.  Brinsmade,  who  had  preceded  them 
to  Europe  with  his  contract  of  1841  from 
the  Hawaiian  government,  to  meet  him 
in  Brussels,  in  May,  1843,  and  lend  him 
their  influence  in  negotiating  a  sale  of 
the  contract  with  all  other  properties  of 
Ladd  &  Co.,  to  the  Belgian  Company  of 
'Colonization.  Based  on  this  transfer  of 
property  was  an  involved,  and  consider- 
ing the  condition  of  the  islands,  an  im- 
politic and  hazardous  scheme  for  the 
establishment  of  an  extensive  mercantile 
and  agricultural  community,  formed  by 
agents  and  employees  sent  out  by  the 
parent  society  in  Belgium,  who  were  to 
enjoy  certain  questionable  monopolies 
and  privileges.  The  king  was  to  have 
been  a  partner  and  stockholder  in  this 
foreign  stock-jobbing  company,  and  to 
guarantee  a  minimum  interest  of  four 
per  cent,  during  six  years. 
,Before  the  final  arrangements  were 


completed,  and  any  solid  consideration 
paid  over  to  Mr.  Brinsmade,  news  of  the 
occupation  of  the  islands  by  Lord  George 
Paulet  arrived,  and  as  Ladd  &  Co.  al- 
leged, threw  a  damper  over  the  whole 
proceedings.  Negotiations  with  the  com- 
pany were  afterwards  resumed,  and  the 
statutes  of  the  community  signed.  But 
Mr.  Brinsmade  becoming  discouraged  by 
the  delays  thrown  in  his  way  by  the  Bel- 
gian company,  who  either  were  not  pre- 
pared to  enter  so  fully  into  the  plan  as 
he  desired,  or  had  grown  lukewarm  and 
sceptical  as  to  its  final  success,  under 
date  of  October,  1844,  wrote  Mr.  Rich- 
ards that  he  was  in  correspondence  with 
merchants  in  Ghent, who  "were  anxious 
to  get  the  business,  but  will  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  Belgian  Company  of 
Colonization,  but  will  establish  a  purely 
commercial  company  on  common  sense 
principles."  *  *  *  "If  my  propositions 
are  declined,  there  will  be  an  end  to  all 
attempts  in  Belgium,  and  I  am  feeling 
in  London  my  way  to  bring  the  business 
before  some  persons  here  if  I  cut  from 
Ghent."  Relying  upon  these  assurances, 
Mr.  Richards,  who  was  then  in  America, 
believing  all  connection  with  the  Bel- 
gian company  was  at  an  end  through 
the  acts  of  Mr.  Brinsmade  himself,  and 
the  non-ratification  of  the  scheme  by  the 
council  general  of  the  Belgian  company, 
paid  no  further  attention  to  the  subject. 
Although  both  of  the  king's  commis- 
sioners gave  their  consent  to  Mr.  Brins- 
made's sale  and  contract  in  Belgium, 
yet  Mr.  Haalilio  did  so  with  great  re- 
luctance, and  Mr.  Richards  was  actuated 
by  the  desire  of  countenancing  on  the 
part  of  the  king  a  project  which  he  had 
been  induced  to  believe  gave  indications 
of  being  adapted  to  foster  industry,  and 
develop  the  resources  of  the  islands.  But 
further  examination  into  the  practical 
working  of  such  complicated  chartered 
corporations,  with  the  bearing  of  vast 
foreign  capital  and  influence,  sustained 
by  monopolies  of  commercial  and  landed 
privileges,  upon  a  small  nation  like  that 
of  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  convinced  him 
that  it  could  not  but  prove  unfavorable. 
In  signing  an  instrument  of  the  kind,  he 
evidently  had  transcended  the  objects  of 
his  mission,  as  defined  in  his  commission 
and  power  of  attorney,  trusting  to  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLAXU8. 


189 


utility  of  the  scheme,  as  he  understood 
it,  to  recommend  itself  to  the  chiefs  be- 
fore going  into  operation.  In  this,  how- 
ever, he  was  mistaken  j  for  as  soon  as 
the  king  and  chiefs  were  made  acquaint- 
ed with  the  arrangement,  they  expressed 
both  anxiety  for  the  results  and  disap- 
probation of  the  act.  Their  sentiments 
were  founded  in  part  upon  the  private 
reports  and  letters  of  Haalilio,  who,  al- 
though his  judgment  had  been  overborne 
in  lending  his  signature  to  the  transac- 
tion, was  fearful  he  had  made  a  wrong 
step,  and  communicated  his  doubts  to 
the  chiefs.  Previous  to  signing  the  con- 
tract, Mr.  Richards  exhibited  to  the  Bel- 
gian agents  such  powers  as  he  had,  and 
they  were  of  opinion  that  they  were  suf- 
ficiently broad  for  him  to  make  the  king 
a  party  to  the  transaction. 

Fortunately,  both  for  Belgium  and 
Hawaii,  it  fell  through.  But  the  affair 
proved  a  prolific  source  of  anxiety  and 
trouble  for  the  king,  and  developed  in  full 
the  evils  of  that  policy  which,  through 
unbounded  reliance  on  alleged  philan- 
thropic motives,  involved  the  government 
in  the  speculations  of  individuals. 

Mr.  Brinsmade  having  failed  of  rais- 
ing funds  in  Europe  on  his  contract,  re- 
turned to  the  islands  in  1846,  protested 
against  the  right  of  his  partners  to  give 
mortgages  on  their  joint  property,  and 
instituted  a  claim  of  $378,000  against 
the  Hawaiian  government  for  alleged  il- 
legal acts  in  selling  their  properties,  and 
in  preventing  the  Belgian  scheme  from 
going  into  operation.  The  government, 
fully  persuaded  that  they  had  treated 
Ladd  &  Co.  throughout  not  only  justly 
but  liberally,  and  that  this  claim  was  but 
another  instance  like  the  many  already 
adduced,  of  nefarious  attempts  to  extort 
money  from  them  under  specious  charges, 
aggravated  in  this  case  by  ingratitude 
from  men  on  whom  they  had  showered 
favors,  and  whose  misfortunes  were  the 
result  solely  of  the  failure  of  their  own 
schemes  and  agent,  and  an  amount  of 
indebtedness  incurred  to  sustain  their 
ill-judged  speculation,  consented  that  the 
whole  matter  should  be  referred  to  the 
arbitration  of  Messrs.  J.  F.  B.  Marshall 
and  S.  H.  Williams,  American  gentle- 
men resident  on  the  islands,  to  be  de- 
cided on  legal  and  equitable  principles. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


Standard  of  civilization  in  1846— Population — Captain 
King's  estimate,  1779 — Why  erroneous— Great  mortal- 
ity—Causes of— Census  tables  for  years  1832  and  1836 
— Statistics  of  the  islands— Conclusion. 

IN  Cook's  voyages,  the  population  of 
the  group,  in  the  year  1779,  is  estimated 
at  400,000,  which,  it  is  to  be  presumed, 
far  exceeded  the  truth.  Captain  King, 
who  arrived  at  this  conclusion,  based  his 
opinions  from  the  numbers  that  flocked 
to  whichever  point  the  vessels  moved. 
They  were  sufficiently  wonderful  objects 
in  the  eyes  of  the  simple  islanders,  to 
draw  together  the  whole  population,  to 
gaze  upon  them,  wherever  they  went ; 
consequently,  vast  crowds  continually 
appeared,  but  composed,  to  a  great  ex- 
tent, of  the  same  individuals.  He  like- 
wise judged  the  populousness  of  Keala- 
keakua  Bay  to  be  a  fair  sample  of  the 
condition  of  the  coasts  of  all  the  islands; 
a  conclusion  which  a  better  acquaintance 
with  their  actual  state  would  have  shown 
him  to  have  been  erroneous. 

Judging  from  such  data,  his  estimate 
gave  to  the  whole  islands  a  population 
nearly  equal  to  that  which  he  beheld  in 
certain  points ;  a  conclusion  as  incorrect 
as  it  was  too  hastily  made.  Later  voy- 
agers formed  similar  opinions,  from  the 
large  tracts  of  land  to  be  met  with,  now 
deserted,  bearing  marks  of  former  culti- 
vation, and  enclosed  by  broken  walls,  or 
partially  irrigated  by  half  ruined  ditches. 
When  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  the  cus- 
tom of  changing  the  location  of  their 
cultivated  grounds  was  common  among 
the  natives,  leaving  the  old  to  go  to 
waste,  and  that  no  chief  of  great  impor- 
tance was  allowed  by  the  policy  of  Ka- 
mehameha  I.  to  reside  away  from  the 
person  of  his  sovereign,  his  presence  be- 
ing a  security  for  his  allegiance,  and  that 
the  supreme  chief  frequently  migrated, 
drawing  after  him  a  vast  train  of  greedy 
followers,  whose  path  was  as  destructive 
as  that  of  locusts,  it  is  not  matter  of  sur- 
prise that  such  fields  are  common.  The 
country  became  deserted  by  those  inter- 
ested in  its  culture ;  consequently  no 
correct  inference  in  regard  to  the  former 
population  can  be  formed  from  this  fact. 
But  whatever  was  its  amount,  it  was 
vastly  greater  than  at  present,  and  since 
the  time  of  Cook  a  rapid  decrease  has 
occurred.  Neither  is  this  melancholy  re- 


190 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


suit  of  difficult  solution.  The  population 
of  the  islands  probably  never  amounted 
to  what,  with  the  aids  of  civilization, 
they  could  be  made  capable  of  support- 
ing. During  their  heathen  state,  though 
divided  into  many  hostile  tribes,  perpet- 
ually engaged  in  warfare,  their  battles, 
from  the  imperfection  of  their  weapons, 
were  comparatively  bloodless.  That  very 
condition  served  to  develop  enterprise 
and  a  national  spirit.  Warlike  exercises 
and  manly  games  had  each  a  favorable 
effect  upon  the  mere  physical  growth. 
The  boundless  hospitality  which  every 
chief  was  obliged  by  the  spirit  of  the 
race  to  exercise,  and  which  prevailed 
even  among  the  canaille,  always  found 
food  and  shelter  for  the  oppressed.  A 
man  dissatisfied  with  one  master  had  but 
to  flee  to  another,  and  he  was  sheltered 
and  welcomed.  Taxes  were  heavy,  and 
much  labor  required,  but  as  it  was  gen- 
erally for  the  support  of  the  whole,  an 
interested  motive  existed.  The  same 
work  which  would  destroy  the  energies 
of  a  man  who  was  to  receive  no  reward 
for  his  toil,  would  produce  health  and 
cheerfulness  in  one  who  had  an  interest 
in  the  result.  Every  individual  had  that 
to  some  extent  in  the  wealth  and  success 
of  his  chief;  hence  a  patriarchal  feeling 
was  developed,  which,  with  long  used 
and  uncontested  despotic  power,  will  suf- 
ficiently account  for  the  deep  reverence, 
fear,  and  canine-like  attachment,  with 
which  the  common  people  regarded  their 
superiors.  Exceptions  to  this  no  doubt 
prevailed,  and  much  misery  was  the  con- 
sequence ;  but  as  a  general  principle  it 
was  correct,  and  stands  in  strong  contrast 
with  the  relative  condition  of  the  two 
classes,  after  a  thirst  for  foreign  wealth 
was  developed  by  intercourse  with  the 
white  race.  A  grasping,  avaricious  dis- 
position succeeded  ;  ends  were  to  be  at- 
tained regardless  of  the  means  used. 
The  little  natural  humane  feeling  the 
chiefs  possessed,  was  extinguished  by 
avarice.  Interested  foreigners  stimulated 
this  passion ;  cargoes  of  rich  goods  were 
brought,  luxuries  displayed,  and  no  means 
left  untried  to  excite  their  cupidity.  The 
unfortunate  result  is  well  known.  The 
whole  physical  resources  of  the  kingdom 
were  overwrought,  and  men,  women  and 
children  were  taxed  beyond  their  pow- 


ers, to  collect  sandal-wood ;  mountains 
and  valleys  almost  inaccessible,  were 
penetrated,  and  heavy  loads  borne  on 
bleeding  shoulders  to  the  sea-side.  Like 
the  children  of  Israel,  their  toil  was  dou- 
bled, and  their  sufferings  found  no  con- 
sideration in  the  eyes  of  their  cruel  task 
masters.  Cultivation  was  neglected,  and 
famine  ensued.  Multitudes  perished  un- 
der their  burdens ;  others  left  their  homes 
and  wandered,  like  wild  animals,  in  the 
depths  of  forests,  where  they  either 
slowly  sunk  under  the  horrors  of  want 
and  starvation,  or  sustained  a  miserable 
existence  on  roots  and  wild  fruits.  Blind 
to  the  consequences,  the  chiefs  contin- 
ued the  same  policy.  Debts  were  con- 
tracted, which  the  power  of  the  whites 
required  to  be  discharged,  and  increased 
taxes  were  imposed.  Under  the  twofold 
pressure  of  the  avarice  of  the  chiefs  and 
their  fears,  property  was  unsafe.  A  na- 
tive could  neither  hold  nor  acquire — all 
was  his  chiefs;  even  his  children  became 
a  source  of  additional  suffering,  for  every 
head  was  taxed! — infanticide  greatly  in- 
creased ; — parents  gave  away  their  off- 
spring, and  the  natural  feelings  of  the 
nation  were  crushed  beneath  this  iron 
despotism.  Life  became  a  wearisome 
burden ;  numbers  of  the  most  active 
sought  safety  and  employment  abroad. 
The  first  effects  of  Christianity  added  to 
this  already  intolerable  load.  So  long 
had  this  system  been  pursued,  that  no 
other  plan  for  public  works,  than  the 
compulsory  labor  of  the  whole  popula- 
tion, seemed  feasible.  Regardless  of  the 
advice  and  instruction  of  their  religious 
teachers,  they  added  to  their  labors  the 
toil  of  building  churches,  school  houses, 
and  other  works,  necessary  in  themselves, 
but  erected  by  unholy  means.  This  sys- 
tem prevailed  in  latter  days,  with  miti- 
gations, however,  until  1838,  when  it 
began  to  give  away  before  the  combined 
influences  of  the  mission  and  foreign  res- 
idents, and  the  more  enlightened  efforts 
of  the  native  population.  Predial  servi- 
tude in  its  old  shape  now  no  longer  neces- 
sarily exists  in  Hawaii,  although  the 
spirit  of  extortion  is  not  wholly  extin- 
guished. The  wars  of  Kamehameha  I. 
were  also  very  destructive,  and  his  power 
at  first  maintained  by  great  sacrifice  of 
human  life. 


HISTORY   OF  THE  HAWA11A&  ISLANDS. 


191 


Before  Captain  Cook's  visit,  diseases 
were  few  and  simple.  Subsequently  they 
increased  in  number  and  virulence,  while 
the  remedies  and  knowledge  necessary 
for  arresting  them  remained  unknown ; 
the  fatality  attending  novel  illnesses,  the 
progress  of  which  they  knew  not  how  to 
arrest,  produced  a  deep  and  often  fatal 
spirit  of  despondency.  Savages  naturally 
have  but  little  horror  of  death.  However 
simple  at  first  a  disease,  they  frequently 
die  from  want  of  exertion  to  lite.  The 
beneficent  services  of  the  foreign  physi- 
cians are  doing  much  to  counteract  this 
destructive  apathy,  and  also  to  extinguish 
the  influence  of  native  quacks,  who  an- 
nually destroy  numbers.  Alcohol  and 
licentiousness  have  usually  been  consid- 
ered the  most  aggravated  causes  of  de- 
population, but  their  influence  has  been 
exaggerated.  The  habits  of  the  natives, 
in  both  respects,  are  now  better  than  they 
were  before  their  discovery,  when  drunk- 
enness, produced  by  the  use  of  awa,  and 
promiscuous  intercourse  and  incest,  were 
almost  parts  of  their  natures.  The  former 
no  doubt  has  destroyed  many,  and  cre- 
ated a  predisposition  to  disease  in  more; 
but  the  natives  were  never  so  completely 
addicted  to  it,  as  to  make  it  a  primary 
cause  in  their  destruction.  The  diseases 
incident  to  the  latter,  have  extensively 
run  throughout  the  whole  race,  doing 
irreparable  injury  by  poisoning  the  very 
fountains  of  life,  and  engendering  upon 
offspring  effete  constitutions.  In  1842, 
the  virus  had  almost  run  out,  but  since, 
owing  to  the  great  influx  of  shipping  from 
all  quarters  of  the  globe,  it  has  again  de- 
veloped itself  in  new  and  horrible  forms, 
with  a  virulence  and  fatality  unequaled 
since  the  visit  of  Cook.  A  remarkable 
feature  attending  this  disease  is  that  it  is 
now  more  severe  upon  the  females  than 
males.  Prior  to  their  discovery  by  Cook, 
these  diseases  were  unknown.  It  cannot 
be  doubted  that  they  have  been  a  power- 
ful means,  not  so  much  of  destroying  the 
increase  as  preventing  it,  and  the  effects 
are  melancholy  in  the  extreme.  The 
habits  of  both  sexes  are  of  such  a  nature, 
that  fecundity  with  young  people  is,  when 
compared  with  other  countries,  of  rare 
occurrence.  It  is  sufficient  to  be  known 
that  such  is  the  fact,  without  enlarging 
upon  the  topic.  A  missionary  has-  in- 


formed me  that  upon  inquiring  of  a  Bible 
class  of  80  married  women,  how  many 
had  been  mothers,  he  found  but  39.  More 
die  in  proportion  to  disease  than  in  other 
countries,  but  still  fewer  are  born,  as  the 
tables  of  population  show.  The  great 
pestilence  of  1803  destroyed  multitudes, 
and  has  been  supposed  to  have  partaken 
of  the  character  of  the  Asiatic  cholera. 
Great  numbers  of  healthy  young  Hawai- 
ians  have  left  in  whale-ships  and  other 
vessels  and  never  returned.  The  num- 
ber annually  afloat  is  computed  at  3,000. 
At  one  time  400  were  counted  at  Tahiti, 
500  in  Oregon,  50  at  Paita,  Peru,  beside 
unknown  numbers  in  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica. Their  wives  and  families,  left  to 
provide  for  themselves,  fall  into  vicious 
habits,  and  both  evils  combined,  tend  to 
diminish  the  native  population. 

A  powerful  agent,  though  one  the  ef- 
fects of  which  have  been  greatly  over- 
looked, is  the  partial  adoption  of  foreign 
clothing.  This  may  seem  paradoxical ; 
but  unfortunately  it  is  too  true.  In  their 
original  state,  their  clothing  was  simple 
and  uniform.  Alterations  soon  occurred  ; 
in  their  desire  to  imitate  the  whites,  their 
old  was  greatly  thrown  aside,  and  re- 
placed by  such  articles  of  foreign  manu- 
facture as  could  be  procured.  The  wealth 
of  the  chiefs  enabled  them  to  make  a  com- 
plete change,  and  appear  well.  With  the 
common  people,  every  article,  from  the 
cast-off  dress  of  a  sailor  from  the  Arc- 
tic regions,  to  the  thinnest  fabrics  from 
China,  were  put  into  requisition.  Some 
days  the  whole  population  would  appear 
decently  clad ;  on  others,  a  mixture  of 
their  old  and  new  would  predominate. 
Many  would  wear  their  clothes  but  part 
of  the  time,  and  then  finding  them  incon- 
venient from  extra  heat  or  cold,  throw 
them  aside  altogether.  The  utmost  ir- 
regularity prevailed,  not  only  from  pov- 
erty, but  from  carelessness,  and  ignorance 
of  the  results.  Warm  dresses  would  be 
worn  for  weeks  by  some,  and  then  the 
same  party  would  appear  for  as  long  a 
period  in  almost  a  state  of  nudity.  The 
warmer  and  finer  the  weather,  the  greater 
the  desire  for  display.  If  it  rained,  those 
who  but  a  few  minutes  previous  paraded 
their  finery  with  all  the  importance  of 
civilized  belles,  would  lay  it  aside  lest  it 
be  spoiled,  and  expose  their  naked  per- 


192 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


sons  rather  than  their  newly  acquired 
fashions,  to  the  peltings  of  the  storm. 
In  all  work,  the  same  plan  prevailed.  At 
those  seasons  when  clothing  was  most  re- 
quired to  preserve  an  even  temperature 
of  the  system,  it  was  laid  aside,  and  when 
least  needed,  most  worn.  Their  consti- 
tutions already  enfeebled,  from  causes 
before  mentioned,  could  ill  bear  such 
treatment.  Colds  and  fevers  greatly  in- 
creased, and  of  a  more  fatal  tendency. 
Trivial  predispositions  to  disease  were 
aggravated,  and  death  the  frequent  re- 
sult of  attacks  which  the  slightest  pru- 
dence could  have  obviated. 

A  corresponding  cause  likewise  exists 
in  the  partial  adoption  of  new  modes  of 
building,  such  as  adobie  houses,  and 
others,  which  in  many  cases  appear  ex- 
ternally more  comfortable  than  the  mere 
straw  hut,  but  which  internally  from 
want  of  knowledge  of  domestic  architec- 
ture, are  obnoxious  to  damp  and  strong 
drafts,  which  not  being  guarded  against 
lay  the  foundation  of  much  disease.  Fre- 
quent migrations  and  changes  of  climate 
from  wet  to  dry,  and  dry  and  hot  to  wet 
and  cold,  combined  with  equal  alterations 
in  diet,  contribute  to  swell  the  annual 
mortality.  Formerly,  fear  of  enemies  or 
the  orders  of  their  chiefs,  kept  them 
closely  confined  to  their  native  villages. 

But  no  one  cause  has  had  a  more  fatal 
tendency,  both  in  human  life  and  mor- 
als, than  the  vicious  land  monopoly  of 
the  chiefs,  augmented  and  made  more 
weighty  at  the  national  council  assem- 
bled at  the  visit  of  the  Blonde  to  regulate 
the  succession.  The  first  Kamehameha 
had  done  somewhat  to  relieve  this  evil  by 
centering  all  power  in  himself,  by  which 
the  serfs  found  one  comparatively  kind 
master,  not  inattentive  to  their  wants. 
Amid  the  boundless  rapacity  and  taxa- 
tion that  ensued  in  Liholiho's  reign,  the 
entire  kingdom  became  in  great  measure 
one  vast  field  of  license  and  cruelty.  The 
old  feudal  lines  of  demarkation  between 
serf,  clan,  chief  and  king  were  greatly 
broken  in  upon.  The  king  managed  to 
sequester  many  estates  and  much  prop- 
erty for  himself  and  favorites.  In  the 
want  of  general  order  and  continual 
change,  there  was  hope  for  the  needy  by 
some  turn  in  the  wheel  of  fortune  to  se- 
cure something.  Even  the  highest  chiefs 


were  insecure.  This  universal  laxity 
could  have  been  turned  to  a  useful  pur- 
pose upon  the  accession  of  a  more  orderly 
ruler,  by  securing  to  each  individual  of 
whatever  rank,  security  of  life  and  prop- 
erty, and  bestowing  on  all  some  landed 
rights  in  the  latter,  that  they  might  find 
a  value  in  the  former.  But  no  such  pol- 
icy prevailed.  With  a  selfishness,  par- 
alleled only  by  the  recklessness  of  those 
beneath  them,  the  chiefs  partitioned  the 
entire  country  among  themselves,  so  that 
at  this  present  time,  notwithstanding  the 
many  fluctuations  of  property  and  the 
increase  of  knowledge,  there  are  not  over 
600  owners  of  soil  throughout  the  king- 
dom, and  less  than  twelve  persons  hold 
the  great  bulk  of  it.  This  in  itself  would 
not  have  been  so  great  an  evil,  had  it  not 
been  conjoined  with  a  system  aggravated 
from  the  past,  which  in  spirit  declared 
that  the  chief  was  everything,  the  peo- 
ple nothing.  Not  content  to  spare  their 
goose  that  they  might  receive  a  golden 
egg  per  day,  they  essayed  to  kill  it,  that 
they  might  get  all  at  once.  The  native 
historians  of  this  period,  say,  that  from 
Liholiho's  time  the  chiefs  left  caring  for 
the  people.  Their  attention  was  turned 
to  themselves  and  their  immediate  ag- 
grandizement. The  people  became  more 
oppressed  than  even  in  ancient  times. 
Novel  taxes  were  inflicted  and  new  crimes 
invented,  which  bore  a  fruitful  crop  of 
fines  and  confiscations.  Beside  the  soil, 
the  chiefs  claimed  the  entire  right  to  all 
that  was  on  it;  even  the  very  stones  were 
not  spared  if  they  could  be  made  con- 
vertible to  property ;  the  fishing  grounds 
were  seized  and  even  fruit  trees,  not  with 
the  purpose  of  fostering  and  preserving 
them  for  the  common  benefit  of  them- 
selves and  tenants,  but  to  get  from  them 
and  their  people  the  greatest  amount  in 
the  shortest  time.  The  present  was  the 
only  moment,  the  future  entered  not  into 
their  calculation.  As  far  as  could  be, 
the  very  idea  of  property,  particularly  in 
lands,  the  true  source  of  national  indus- 
try, was  extinguished.  A  common  man 
had  no  "  home."  Under  such  circum- 
stances, it  is  not  surprising  that  depop- 
ulation was  not  stayed  nor  immorality 
decreased.  The  relation  between  tyrants 
and  slaves  is  ever  fruitful  of  crimes  in 
the  one  and  vice  in  the  other.  The  serf 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


193 


unprotected  by  law,  secure  in  no  fruits 
of  his  own  handicraft  or  industry,  met 
the  rapacity  of  his  chief  and  his  selfish 
claims  to  lands  he  had  never  tilled,  by 
cunning,  deceit  or  evasion.  Hence  the 
character  for  lying,  theft  and  petty  dis- 
honesty which  we  find  so  prevalent 
among  the  present  generation.  They 
are  the  natural  fruits  of  the  wicked  sys- 
tem of  land  monopoly  with  all  its  attend- 
ant crimes,  which  their  chiefs  so  fully 
carried  out.  Not  the  least  of  the  evils 
arising  from  this  policy,  was  the  unset- 
tled character  it  gave  the  entire  popula- 
tion. Possessing  no  permanent  rights 
in  the  soil,  or  such  as  were  not  respect- 
ed, they  ceased  to  have  permanent  resi- 
dences. Leaving  their  native  homes, 
they  flocked  to  whatever  points  offered 
the  greatest  inducements,  chiefly  sea- 
ports,— the  women  to  sell  their  persons, 
and  the  men  to  pick  up  gain  in  any 
way  that  offered.  In  consequence,  lands 
were  left  uncultivated,  households  were 
broken  up,  and  the  people  became  rov- 
ing in  their  habits.  It  were  vain,  there- 
fore, under  these  circumstances,  to  expect 
patriotism,  morality  and  industry,  the 
foundations  of  a  people's  prosperity,  to 
flourish. 

The  filthy  habits  of  the  natives  would 
of  themselves  be  conducive  to  disease, 
and  much  else  might  be  named  which 
would  cause  the  philanthropist  less  to 
wonder  at  the  decrease,  than  that  it 
.should  have  been  so  slight  in  comparison 
to  the  many  causes  so  actively  at  work  to 
create  it.  I  have  stated  only  those  which 
have  come  into  operation  since  their 
first  intercourse  with  the  whites.  Wars 
were  more  bloody,  owing  to  the  posses- 
sion of  improved  weapons,  and  on  a  more 
extended  scale,  until  the  conquest  of  the 
group  was  completed.  They  were  suc- 
ceeded by  diseases  of  the  most  destruc- 
tive character,  which  raged  unresisted 
by  medical  art.  As  fatal  as  either  were 
the  severe,  labors  imposed  upon  the  con- 
quered. Then  the  aggravation  of  the 
vicious  land  system  and  taxes,  with  al- 
cohol, swelled  the  list,  and  ignorance  of, 
or  blindness  to  the  most  simple  physical 
truths,  added  their  hecatombs.  It  is  to 
be  remembered  that  these  causes  were 
all  additional  to  those  which  existed 
prior  to  their  discovery,  and  which  were 
25 


j  of  themselves  sufficiently  active  to  pre- 
vent any  rapid  increase. 

At  the  first  glance,  it  may  appear  that 
civilization  is  destructive  in  its  tendency 
when  in  contact  with  the  savage.  A 
more  extended  view  will  show  it  other- 
wise. If  it  destroy,  it  likewise  creates. 
Evil,  as  the  most  active  principle,  may 
for  a  while  riot  uncontrolled,  yet  coun- 
teracting and  more  powerful  tendencies 
are  at  work,  which  must  eventually  neu- 
tralize and  overcome  the  former.  Civi- 
lized man  can  add  nothing  to  the  vices 
of  the  savage,  though  by  the  contact  the 
fruits  may  be  made  more  bitter.  Like 
the  first  effects  of  a  brilliant  sun  upon 
tender  vegetation,  it  will  shrink  and 
wither,  but  the  same  light  continued 
will  cause  it  to  revive  and  shoot  forward 
in  all  the  luxuriance  of  its  legitimate 
growth.  Such  has  been  emphatically  the 
case  at  these  islands.  Their  depopula- 
tion was  more  rapid,  as  far  as  can  be  as- 
certained, in  the  reigns  of  Kamehameha 
I.  and  his  successor,  Liholiho,  than  at  a 
more  recent  period.  As  Christianity  and 
civilization  have  advanced,  in  just  that 
proportion  has  this  mortality  ceased. 

In  1847  the  scene  has  greatly  changed. 
.Religion  has  provided  schools,  medical 
science,  churches  and  kindred  institu- 
tions throughout  the  land.  It  is  a  living 
spring,  gushing  up  freely  in  their  house- 
holds ;  watering  their  young  plants  and 
refreshing  the  parent  stems.  It  sends  to 
every  hamlet  a  knowledge  of  letters,  and 
furnishes  the  word  of  life,  and  a  constant 
supply  of  healthful  food  for  the  inquiring 
mind.  A  moral  stimulant  is  constantly 
at  work  to  elevate  and  preserve,  in  the 
shape  of  associations,  societies,  religious 
meetings,  after  the  system  of  New  Eng- 
land. Philanthropy  plants  her  agents  by 
scores  among  them,  active,  resolute,  and 
untiring  in  efforts  for  their  temporal  and 
eternal  welfare. 

Such  are  the  agents  at  work  to  arrest 
the  obliteration  of  the  Hawaiian  race 
from  the  earth  and  to  give  it  a  passport 
to  futurity.  To  the  notice  already  given 
of  their  present  moral  condition,  it  re- 
mains to  briefly  delineate  their  position 
in  the  scale  of  actual  civilization  in 

j  1847— an  epoch  in  which  the  generation 

i  that  was  bom  in  heathenism  is  still  alive. 

I      Experience  declares  Hawaiians  to  be 


194 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


susceptible  of  civilization.  Unlike  the 
nomadic  tribes  of  Asia  and  the  predatory 
clans  of  America,  their  insular  position 
compelled  them  to  a  stationary  life  and 
the  character  of  their  soil  and  climate  to 
labor  for  subsistence.  Consequently  their 
governments  became  fixed  and  their  hab- 
its agricultural,  the  first  steps  towards 
civilization.  Like  all  branches  of  the 
Malay  family,  their  perceptive  and  imi- 
tative faculties  are  more  developed  than 
their  reflective,  which  however  cannot 
be  said  to  be  very  deficient,  though  tal- 
ent in  the  European  sense  is  rare  among 
them.  The  mass  thus  far  have  mani- 
fested neither  enterprise  nor  capacity  to 
fit  them  for  higher  situations  than  labor- 
ers, servants  and  seamen.  With  proper 
instruction,  they  become  tolerable  me- 
chanics, but  without  sufficient  genius  to 
originate  or  improve.  In  Honolulu  we 
find  but  twelve  native  carpenters,  four 
masons,  nine  shoemakers,  nineteen  tail- 
ors, six  book-binders,  four  printers,  and  a 
few  others  who  have  some  slight  knowl- 
edge of  other  arts  and  trades.  They 
have  succeeded  in  engraving  upon  cop- 
per-plate with  some  skill.  In  trade  none 
have  risen  above  peddling  or  petty  re- 
tailing. In  agriculture,  we  find  but  few 
examples  of  cultivation  on  an  extended 
and  liberal  scale,  with  an  eye  to  pros- 
pective results.  The  farms  are  little 
patches,  not  badly  laid  out,  but  produc- 
ing slightly  in  comparison  with  what  a 
white  farmer  would  raise.  Their  stock 
is  raised  more  by  chance  than  skill.  As 
yet,  although  there  are  numerous  open- 
ings for  an  extended  and  lucrative  traffic 
in  the  raising  of  fruits,  cattle,  poultry  on 
an  extended  and  systematic  scale,  yet 
but  very  few  are  alive  to  these  enter- 
prises. Some,  stimulated  by  the  advice 
and  example  of  whites,  have  laid  out 
coffee  and  sugar  plantations  and  entered 
into  the  business  of  grazing  on  a  plan  of 
some  magnitude.  In  boating,  the  natives 
show  the  most  spirit,  and  they  own  about 
twenty  small  craft  engaged  in  coasting. 
As  a  people,  they  are  indifferent  to  the 
future,  careless  of  time,  improvident  in 
their  habits,  unsteady  in  their  pursuits, 
and  fond  of  finery  and  show.  Yet  when 
the  obstacles  of  an  early  bad  government 
and  other  bars  to  their  progress  are  con- 
sidered, which  have  been  but  partially 


removed,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that 
it  is  no  matter  of  surprise  that  in  so  few 
years,  their  advance  has  been  no  greater. 
The  chiefs  and  better  class  of  people, 
whose  advantages  have  been  far  superior 
to  the  mass,  have  acquired  a  degree  of 
refinement  and  attained  to  a  comfortable 
style  of  living,  creditable  to  themselves 
and  encouraging  to  the  nation  at  large. 
Their  houses,  of  stone,  adobie,  wood,  or 
grass,  are  many  of  them  large,  well  built 
and  comfortably  and  to  some  degree, 
tastefully  and  expensively  furnished,  and 
surrounded  with  neat,  well  kept  grounds. 
They  dress  well,  and  their  manners  are 
gentlemanly.  The  women  have  never 
acquired  the  ease  and  good  taste  of  the 
men,  although  they  have  adopted  the 
fashionable  costumes  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion. Intellectually,  both  appear  to  tol- 
erable advantage,  particularly  those  who, 
like  the  young  chiefs,  have  been  edu- 
cated. Indeed  in  mathematics  they  are 
apt ;  and  in  other  branches  of  study  quite 
upon  a  par  in  general  knowledge  with 
the  whites  similarly  situated  about  them, 
lacking  however  their  superior  moral  dis- 
cernment and  capability  of  applying  their 
knowledge  to  practical  purposes.  The 
educated  native,  without  the  stimulus  of 
a  diversified  national  literature,  and  a 
cultivated,  aspiring  society,  is  apt  to  de- 
generate upon  leaving  the  immediate  in- 
fluences by  which  he  was  surrounded,  for 
the  common  sphere  of  his  countrymen. 
As  yet,  though  partial  experiments  have 
been  made,  the  missionaries  have  not 
been  able  to  rear  a  class  of  native  clergy, 
whom  they  could  leave  to  act  wholly  in- 
dependent of  their  surveillance.  With 
school-teachers  they  have  been  somewhat 
more  successful,  that  profession  not  re- 
quiring so  high  a  standard  of  moral  judg- 
ment. 

Between  the  classes  above  referred  to 
and  the  lowest,  exists  another,  composed 
of  petty  officers,  deacons,  teachers,  the 
higher  church  members  and  most  intel- 
ligent of  petty  traders,  farmers,  vessel 
owners  and  mechanics,  who  form  the 
connecting  link  in  the  scale  of  civiliza- 
tion. These  are  possessed  of  some  prop- 
erty, say  from  a  few  hundred  to  a  few 
thousand  dollars  each ;  are  frugal  and 
saving;  tolerably  intelligent  in  their  im- 
mediate spheres,  and  possessed  of  some 


HISTORY   OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


195 


ambition  and  enterprise.  Like  those 
above  them,  they  have  some  knowledge 
of  English,  and  are  provident  for  their 
families.  Their  habitations  are  as  much 
removed  in  neatness  and  pretensions 
from  the  huts  of  the  peasantry  as  from 
the  superior  edifices  of  their  chiefs. 
They  have  imbibed  some  knowledge  of 
the  tastes  and  proprieties  of  civilization, 
and  instead  of  herding  in  common,  di- 
vide their  houses  into  apartments ;  sleep 
on  beds ;  possess  tables,  chairs  and  a 
considerable  amount  of  plain  and  useful 
furniture;  adhere  to  the  national  dishes 
of  poi  and  fish,  but  vary  it  with  bread 
and  meat ;  in  short,  are  a  comfortable 
middle  class,  rising  in  fortunes  and  cred- 
itable to  the  country.  They  are  favora- 
bly distinguished  by  the  attention  they 
bestow  upon  their  children.  Their  num- 
bers cannot  be  given,  but  though  not 
large  they  are  increasing. 

The  great  bulk  of  the  people  live  very 
much  as  did  their  ancestors,  in  filthy 
huts  and  on  impure  diet,  raw  fish  and 
poi.  They  are  in  general  provided  with 
clothing,  and  all  have,  or  can  have  more 
or  less  articles  of  foreign  manufacture 
for  their  common  wants.  The  annual 
ad  valorem  consumption  of  foreign  goods 
per  head  to  each  inhabitant  does  not  yet 
exceed  three  dollars ;  a  very  small  ratio 
compared  to  their  wants  and  abilities,  if 
industrious.  They  are  naturally  averse 
to  labor,  prompt  to  take  advantage,  un- 
reasonable in  their  expectations  and  with 
little  or  no  enterprise. 

Whether  the  poison  has  entered  too 
deep  into  the  nation  to  be  eradicated,  is 
a  question  at  present  unsolved.  In  the 
view  of  many,  races  like  individuals, 
have  their  time  and  purpose,  which  they 
fulfill  and  perish.  History  shows  that 
fact  in  the  past.  One  after  another  of 
potent  nations  has  dropped  from  time, 
leaving  on  its  shores  no  greater  wreck 
than  a  tradition,  a  few  pages  of  history, 
or  a  mere  name.  But  the  fact  is  equally 
true,  that  in  the  proportion  that  Chris- 
tian principles  have  had  sway,  in  that  de- 
gree have  nations  flourished.  The  rank, ! 
sudden  growth  of  powers  like  Spain,  j 
which  founded  its  power  and  pride  for  | 
a  while  upon  avarice  and  conquest,  is  no 
exception  to  this  rule.  Trusting  to  such 
support,  it  fell  again  as  rapidly  as  it  rose, 


strangled  by  its  vices.  England,  France, 
the  United  States  and  other  nations,  tak- 
ing revelation  for  their  guide,  and  incor- 
porating into  their  legislation  its  sound 
maxims  of  justice  and  humanity,  stead- 
ily prosper  and  increase.  So  long  as 
they  maintain  those  principles,  and  the 
nearer  they  approach  the  true  intent  of 
their  author,  so  long  are  they  sure  of  life 
and  success.  Thus  will  it  be  with  the 
Havvaiians,  if  their  physical  and  mental 
stock  has  enough  of  vigor  still  remaining 
to  bud  anew  and  bear  fruit.  N,c  fairer 
opportunities  than  are  now  offered  for 
the  success  of  the  experiment  of  raising 
a  savage  tribe  into  a  civilized  state  will 
ever  again  be  offered.  Could  the  mis- 
sionaries have  enjqyed  the  advantages 
open  to  Cook  or  Vancouver  on  their  ar- 
rivals, and  like  Mango  Capac  to  the  sim- 
ple Peruvians,  have  appeared  among  the 
Hawaiians  as  heralds  of  a  new  faith  and 
civilization,  authenticating  their  mission 
to  native  minds  by  a  belief  in  their  di- 
vine inspiration,  their  precepts  would 
have  taken  root  under  better  auspices 
and  with  more  complete  success,  than 
afterwards,  when  the  national  mind  was 
distracted  by  its  new  impulses  of  gain 
and  antagonistic  foreign  example,  and 
the  physical  energies  of  the  nation  were 
fast  perishing  in  the  service  of  vice  and 
avarice.  But  the  renovating  spirit  of 
Christianity  has  steadily  worked  its  way, 
overthrowing  all  obstacles,  creating  for 
itself  a  moral  capital  in  its  progress,  until 
it  has  placed  the  Hawaiian  nation  in  a 
position  which  if  they  do  not  improve  to 
their  advantage,  it  will  be  because  heath- 
enism has  left  them  eflfete  and  incapable 
of  sustaining  the  vigorous  growth  of 
Christianity,  and  Providence  intends  to 
supplant  them  by  a  more  worthy  people. 
The  causes  that  have  operated  to  de- 
populate and  demoralize  the  race,  and 
ultimately  extinguish  it,  have  been  re- 
capitulated. I  shall  now  pass  briefly  in 
review  those  of  a  conservative  and  re- 
newing tendency. 

The  government  of  the  kingdom  is  es- 
sentially Christian.  Founded  upon  mis- 
sionary teaching,  it  derives  its  principles 
and  objects  from  gospel  ethics.  Under 
its  influence,  the  despotism  of  the  chiefs 
over  life  and  property  has  been  abolished 
and  the  nation  invited  to  lay  hold  of  its 


196 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


rights  in  both.  Laws  favorable  to  virtue, 
industry  and  increase  of  population  have 
been  enacted.  Families  having  three 
children  of  their  own  are  freed  from  tax- 
ation ;  those  having  more  are  rewarded 
by  gifts  of  lands.  The  natives  are  en- 
couraged to  secure  allodial  titles  by  a 
remission  of  all  taxes  on  such  for  twenty 
years.  Taxation  is  lightened  and  made 
stimulative  to  honest  industry.  The 
present  laws  are  equitable  and  protec- 
tive. Justice  is  fairly  administered,  and 
the  soundest  principles  of  classical  and 
modern  law  have  become  the  professed 
guides  of  the  courts.  Commerce  has 
brought  among  the  nation  many  foreign- 
ers in  every  way  an  advantage  to  the 
morals  and  enterprise  of  the  natives. 
Scattered  throughout  the  group,  they 
provide  them  almost  at  the  very  doors 
of  their  huts  with  ample  supplies  of  for- 
eign goods  of  all  descriptions  at  fair 
prices,  receiving  in  return  the  avails  of 
native  labor.  They  have  furnished  them 
with  cattle  and  the  vegetable  products  of 
other  countries,  and  introduced  the  arts, 
trades  and  professions  of  civilized  life. 
The  examples  and  encouragements  of 
civilized  households  are  thus  brought  to 
their  very  thresholds.  They  have  given 
a  value  to  the  time  of  the  native  by  cre- 
ating a  demand  for  his  labor,  and  have 
equally  bestowed  a  value  to  his  hitherto 
unproductive  lands,  by  practically  devel- 
oping the  hidden  wealth  of  the  soil.  The 
most  indifferent  industry  is  sure  of  am- 
ple reward.  Vice  as  in  other  lands  has 
no  apology  for  an  existence  here,  on  the 
plea  of  a  super-abundance  of  labor  in 
the  honest  branches  of  livelihood.  Not  a 
man  need  be  a  thief  from  necessity,  nor 
a  woman  unchaste  from  want.  Lands 
everywhere  lie  groaning  in  wild  luxuri- 
ance, crying  out  for  hands  to  till  them. 
The  handicraft  of  women  and  even  the 
services  of  children  are  in  constant  de- 
mand. Commerce  has  raised  the  remu- 
neration of  the  former  and  the  wages  of 
the  laborer  to  the  highest  rate  of  stimu- 
lative reward. 

The  policy  of  the  government  is  essen- 
tially protective  to  the  Hawaiian  race, 
to  the  intent  to  fully  solve  the  question 
of  their  capability  of  civilization.  The 
white  advisers  of  the  king,  having  this 
end  practically  in  view,  fail  to  meet  the 


more  enlarged  views  and  desires  of  white 
residents,  who  look  upon  the  final  ex- 
termination or  loss  of  the  native  race 
and  dynasty  as  their  destiny,  and  con- 
sequently desire  to  see  the  fullest  en- 
couragement offered  for  the  ingress  and 
permanent  settlement  of  a  foreign  popu- 
lation and  capital.  While  these  would 
urge  the  government  on  with  a  rapidity 
commensurate  with  Anglo-Saxon  spirit 
and  intelligence,  the  native  race  by  their 
slowness  of  apprehension  and  fears  for 
their  security  in  case  the  full  torrent  of 
civilized  emigration  and  enterprise  is  let- 
in  unrestrained  upon  them,  hold  them 
back.  On  the  one  hand  the  government 
are  as  unable  fully  to  satisfy  the  cravings 
of  the  whites  to  advance,  as  they  are  to 
bring  the  native  mind  to  a  clear  appre- 
ciation and  faithful  carrying  out  of  the 
measures  best  adapted  to  benefit  it  and 
render  it  more  capable  of  assimilating 
with  the  superior  intelligence  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  intellect.  They  steadily  endeavor 
to  preserve  the  Hawaiian  race;  to  chris- 
tianize and  civilize  them  ;  and  to  this 
end  they  invite  a  limited  co-operation  of 
foreign  aid ;  enough  to  innoculate  the 
nation  with  courage  and  enterprise,  with- 
out deluging  it  in  a  torrent  which  in 
their  present  condition  they  would  inevi- 
tably fail  to  bear  up  against.  In  this  way 
a  just  middle  course  is  adopted,  which  it 
would  seem  from  past  experience  tends 
to  build  up  a  mixed  Hawaiian  and  for- 
eign race,  civilized,  moral  and  industri- 
ous, and  capable  of  taking  an  elevated 
position  in  the  ranks  of  minor  nations. 

In  a  former  edition  of  this  work,  I  ad- 
vanced the  idea  that  notwithstanding  the 
former  extraordinary  rates  of  decrease 
in  the  population,  there  were  operating- 
causes  sufficiently  cogent  to  diminish 
that  decrease  materially  and  to  lead  to  a 
reasonable  hope  that  it  might  be  wholly 
checked,  and  an  increase  take  place  in 
the  native  population.  The  tables  below 
will  serve  to  show  the  fearful  rate  of  de- 
crease up  to  1840.  These  data  are  not 
wholly  to  be  depended  on  in  numbers, 
though  the  general  results  are  doubtless 
correct. 

Cook's  vague  estimate  in  1779,  made 
the  population  of  the  islands  400,000,  but 
300,000  would  have  been  nearer  to  the 
truth. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN 


197 


LOOSE  ESTIMATE    CENSUS    CEKSUS 


FOE  18-23. 

Hawaii 85,000 

Haul 20,000 

Lanai 2,500 

Molokai 3,500 

Kahoolawe 50 

Oiihu 20,000 

Kauai.. 10,000 

Niihau 1,000 

142,050 


OF  1832. 

45,792 

35,062 

1,600 

6,000 

80 

29,755 
10,977 
1,047 


OF  1S36. 

39,364 

24,199 

1,200 

6,000 

80 

27,809 

8,934 

993 


130,313  108,579 


No  fact  illustrates  more  strongly  the 
superior  influences  of  enlightened  Chris- 
tianity in  a  physical  point  of  view  upon 
the  human  race  than  the  remarkable 
discrepancy  in  numbers  between  the 
children  of  missionaries  and  those  of  the 
chiefs,  who  are  the  most  civilized  among 
the  Hawaiian  population.  Nine  of  the 
mission  families  number  59  children — 
an  average  of  6  5-9  to  a  family.  Twenty 
Hawaiian  chiefs  have  but  19  children 
among  them  all.  The  mission  families 
within  less  than  one  generation  have 
increased  175  per  cent.  At  the  same 
ratio  of  increase,  in  100  years  their  de- 
scendants would  number  59,535. 

With  these  statistics  I  take  leave  of 


the  reader,  with  the  assurance  that  I 
have  endeavored  to  portray  faithfully  the 
Hawaiian  nation  through  all  their  pro- 
gressive stages  from  heathenism  to  their 
present  transition  state,  when  civiliza- 
tion is  making  such  rapid  progress  among 
them.  The  reader  who  calmly  and  nat- 
urally reviews  this  progress  cannot  fail 
to  become  interested  in  a  race  occupy- 
ing so  important  a  field  of  philosophic 
and  philanthropic  inquiry.  Whether 
they  are  destined  to  perpetuity  or  not, 
Providence  alone  can  foresee — cold  calcu- 
lating theories  will  not  operate  with  the 
benevolent  to  discourage  efforts  which 
now  promise  so  well ;  if  fail  they  must, 
those  who  have  labored  for  them  will 
have  the  comforting  assurance  of  having 
obeyed  the  injunction,  "Go  ye  therefore 
and  teach  all  nations,"  and  soon  with 
|  those  whose  souls  they  have  raised  from 
;  the  mire  of  heathenism,  they  will  hear 
j  the  welcome  sound,  "  Well  done,  good 
I  and  faithful  servants  ;  enter  thou  into 
.  the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 


APPENDIX, 

SHOWING  THE  PRESENT 


COMMERCIil  AND  AGRICULTURAL  CONDITION 


OF 


THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 

BY   HEXPvY   M.   WHITNEY. 

1872. 


A 


PPENDIX 


THE  valuable  work  of  Mr.  Jarves  brings  the  history  of  this  singularly  interest- 
ing people  down  to  the  year  1847.  To  continue  it  to  the  present  date  would  be  a 
pleasant  task  to  one  identified  so  intimately  with  the  Hawaiian  people,  as  is 
the  writer,  who  has  watched  their  development  and  advancement  with  constant 
and  increasing  interest.  It  is  less  than  a  century  since  this  group  was  discovered 
in  1778  by  Capt.  Cook — the  story  of  whose  untimely  death  was  soon  after  pub- 
lished with  more  of  the  characteristics  of  a  romance  than  a  reality,  attracting  to  this 
people  the  gaze  of  the  Christian  world,  and  exciting  an  interest  in  them  which  has 
never  subsided.  But  little  more  than  half  a  century  has  passed  since  the  pioneer 
band  of  missionaries  landed  on  Hawaii,  and  the  Sun  of  righteousness  rose  to  scat- 
ter the  rays  of  truth  and  knowledge  among  a  people  even  then  restless  to  shake 
off  despotic  paganism,  which  had  ground  them  down  for  ages,  and  thirsting  for 
the  freedom  of  civilization  and  Christianity  which  they  have  so  eagerly  embraced 
that  Hawaii  is  to-day  as  thoroughly  Christianized  as  England  or  France. 
Scarcely  one  generation  has  passed  since  the  first  attempt  was  made  to  model  a 
constitutional  government,  and  the  constitution  of  1840  was  proclaimed  as  the  law 
of  the  land.  Yet  to-day  Hawaii  has  its  treaties  with  the  principal  nations  of  the 
old  world  and  the  new ;  and  the  statistics  which  follow  will  show  that  it  has  com- 
mercial intercourse  with  nearly  every  nation  of  the  Pacific  and  Atlantic,  and  that 
its  commerce  is  developing  as  rapidly  in  proportion  to  its  population  and  area,  as 
that  of  any  other  nation  possessing  like  advantages.  And  all  this,  while  the  his- 
torian is  compelled  to  record  a  continued  extraordinary  decrease  in  the  aboriginal 
population. 

Without  attempting  a  continuation  of  the  history  of  these  islands  from  the 
period  where  Mr.  Jarves  left  it,  my  purpose  is  simply  to  give  a  brief  and  neces- 
sarily imperfect  outline  of  their  present  condition,  including  their  population,  com- 
mercial and  agricultural  resources,  and  other  interesting  data,  closing  with  a  sketch 
of  the  eruptions  of  the  volcano. 

POPULATION. 

The  estimate  of  the  population  of  the  group,  as  made  by  Capt.  Cook,  after  a 
partial  observation  on  each  island,  has  been  thought  by  some  too  large.  The  na- 
tive traditions,  however,  as  well  as  evidences  still  met  with  in  every  part  of  the 
group,  go  to  confirm  the  opinion  of  this  celebrated  explorer.  Certain  it  is  that  it 
was  much  larger  at  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  the  islands  than  when  the  first 
missionaries  arrived  in  1820.  The  decrease,  which  must  be  in  part  attributed  to 
the  savage  internecine  wars  existing  at  the  time  of  Cook's  visit,  has  been  un- 
interrupted, and  at  times  accelerated  by  the  introduction  of  plagues  from  foreign 
countries,  which  have  swept  off  the  aborigines  by  tens  of  thousands.  The  tablo 
at  the  head  of  page  203  will  show  the  population  at  various  periods. 


202 


APPENDIX. 


Total  number   !  §lffif 
natives  in  1866.     ^'Wr-ToTe 


Si 


Tola1  number 
natives  in  1860. 


ISS3332  18 

I  rH  CO  •<*  :N  (O  d         r-c 
Pol  ofco'r-TofeT       rn' 


•*  eo  Tt«  co 


S     SSSSSo'Sl 

OO         tO  CO  O  <N  i-H  rH     I 

of        ofcf  r?i-i  cC 

\ 


ro  CO  O  O    I   O> 


ill 


Total  number 
foreigners,  1866 


|||[*8     §   *8 


Mechanics |§  ^M  'SS  : 


:5-§|i||-S    g:a-S|2|HS:a|S 


Agriculturists.  |g   :§S§g§§  ||||l3p  |||  "5     S    :1""  |  1|[1 


Professionafists 


Freeholders.... 


g5  [  g||S§||  |  g[[  |  S     |§§||  [  ||||gS|  j  §     0  I  S 


Females  over  40 


Males  over  40. 


oocowo    i 


Females  betw'n 
15  and  40. 


oScoco 

CO  CO  CO  Tjl 


ilSllJI 


Males  between    § 
15  and  40.         ^ 


jg    sills  IS 


females  under 
15. 


5|P?§S 
S  P'°«* 


Males  under  15 


Other    foreign- 
ers, females. 


<M  r-l        i<5  CO  t»  t-  O 


Other    foreign- 
ers, males. 


S^    §S§5§S  |S| 


Chinese  females 


•       •          CO       •       •       -O5      I    CM  I  I     .  rl       .05      |O 
.     .        rt      .     .     ._,        eo         .  .M     |   to 


hinese  males. 


(M  •*         t-  U3  OO  O5  CO 


Half-caste 
females. 


I    *^*  t-  Jt—  O  IT—  OO  O5  C 

Native  females  I  "^.»  »  ^J»  ^  o.' 


'  O5  CO  O  I  t- 
'  <N  t-  CO    CO 

S 


>  o  10 1>  ia  o  >o 

1  t—    CO  OO  *M  Oi  OO 

>  i-t    r-l  t-  O  •**  OO 


i  CO  CO  I 


I    CM^OdCi^OcOO 

Native  males. .     |S  3,2  S,S  S  §, 


Si 


r-l  tQ 


rt      co" 


Unmarried....  I  o*.ao 


r-l  r-l         CO  O5 
rH  O1         iO  OO 


CO  ^  O  T-l          rH 

^c  -^r  10  o       »^ 


Married »,  ^^  -S"      -  - 


:SIS  'I 


rH  OJ  r-l  I-l 


'ot.  population    J^JgS 


SJII 1 1 

I  CO  O»     I   •** 


(•>!  ^3  I"-  O  r*  rO  I-H  oo 
O  Ci    O5  »O   !>•  OO   ^1  CD 

Males i  «  «  5.01.51.3  S.8 


O-     MofrH-rH" 


•*  I  >0 
I-  I  05 
rH  I  W, 


d  N 


1J 


APPENDIX. 


203 


Foreign.  Native.         Total.  Decrease. 

1779  (estimated  by  Capt.  Cook) 400,000 

1823  (estimated  by  missionaries) 142,050  44  years  257,950 

1832  (first  official  census) 130,315  9  "        11,735 

1836  (official  census) 108,579  4  "        24,414 

1850  (official  census) 1,962  82,203        84,165  14  "       24,414 

1853  (official  census) 2,119  71,019        73,138  3  "       11,027 

1860  (official  census)....    2,716  67,084        69,800  7  "         3,338 

1866  (official  census) 4,194  58,765        62,959  6  "         6,841 

The  census  of  1866  is  the  last  which  has  been  taken,  but  it  is  probable  that 
another  will  be  taken  the  present  year.  The  details  of  the  census  of  1866  are 
quite  interesting,  and  are  given  on  page  202.  Some  of  them  may  be  noticed  here 
as  compared  with  the  returns  for  1860  : 

1866.  1860.         Decrease.     Increase. 

Total  number  of  males 34,395        35,379  985          

Total  number  of  females 28,564        31,705        3,141 

Total  population 62,959        69,800        6,741 

Total  number  of  married  persons 31,287        38,124        6,837 

Total  number  unmarried 31,672        28,960          ....         2,712 

Total  native  population 58,765        66,984        8,901          

Total  half-castes , 1,640 

Total  Chinese 1,206 

Total  other  foreigners 2,988          2,716          ....  272 

Total  number  of  hired  laborers 6,025 

Total  number  of  agriculturists 8,358 

Total  number  of  landholders 7,154 

Total  number  of  mechanics  or  artizans 1,146 

The  number  of  males  in  the  group  has  decreased  but  984,  while  the  females 
are  3,141  less  than  in  1860.  This  is  perhaps  the  most  disheartening  fact  devel- 
oped by  the  census,  as  it  shows  the  reproductive  power  of  the  nation  to  be  lessen- 
ing in  an  alarming  degree.  An  examination  of  the  table  will  show  that  the  decrease 
has  not  been  confined  to  any  island  or  district,  but  preserves  nearly  the  same  ratio 
throughout  the  group.  Honolulu  and  Lahaina  might  reasonably  be  supposed  to 
show  less  decrease  than  the  country  districts,  where  medical  aid  is  not  so  readily 
obtained,  and  the  dwellings  are  less  substantial.  But  they  furnish  no  favorable 
exception,  while  in  Lahaina  the  falling  off  in  the  population  during  six  years 
amounts  to  twenty-five  per  cent.,  owing  in  part  to  migration  to  other  districts.  A 
table  showing  the  population  of  each  island,  as  compared  with  the  two  previous 
enumerations,  will  illustrate  this  better : 

1866.  I860:  1853: 

Hawaii 19,808  21,481  24,450 

Maui 14,035  16,400  17,574 

Molokai 2,299  2,864  3,607 

Lanai 394             646  600 

Oahu 19,799  21,275  19,126 

Kauai, 6,299  6,487  6,991 

Niihau 325             647  790 

Total 62,959        69,800        73,138 

The  annual  decadence  of  the  population  between  1860  and  1866,  was  at  the 
rate  of  1,140;  and  it  is  probable  that  the  next  census,  whenever  taken,  will  show 
no  great  change  in  the  rate  of  decrease.  Were  it  not  for  the  influx  of  foreigners, 
and  especially  of  Chinese,  with  the  rapid  increase  in  the  foreign  element  by  births, 
and  with  the  increase  arising  from  inter-marriage,  the  population  of  the  group 
would  show  a  much  greater  falling  off. 

Official  documents  laid  before  the  Legislative  Assembly  of  1872,  show  4,961 
more  deaths  than  births  during  the  four  years  from  1868  to  1871,  or  1,250  per 
annum.  Taking  this  average  as  a  basis  of  estimate,  the  native  population  of  this 
group,  in  1873,  will  not  exceed  50,000.  During  this  period  no  epidemic  has  been 
reported,  and  the  deaths  have  been  from  natural  causes.  Unless  some  means  are  de- 
.vised  to  check  it,  the  native  race  will  continue  to  decrease  in  about  the  same  ratio. 


204  APPENDIX. 

THE  SUGAR  INTEREST. 

The  first  instance  of  the  manufacture  of  sugar  on  these  islands  dates  back 
previous  to  1820,  but  the  name  of  the  pioneer  planter  is  lost.  Old  residents 
speak  of  sugar  and  molasses  of  a  coarse  quality  having  been  manufactured  here 
in  sufficient  quantities  for  ordinary  domestic  consumption  in  1828.  In  that 
year,  extensive  fields  of  cane  were  grown  in  and  about  Honolulu,  and  mills  were 
erected  in  Nuuanu  Valley  and  at  Waikapu,  Maui.  At  the  latter  place,  a  Portu- 
guese, named  Antonio  Silva,  is  spoken  of  as  the  pioneer  sugar  planter.  Some 
Chinamen  also  had  a  sugar  mill  near  Hilo.  These  mills  were  all  of  wood,  very 
primitive  in  their  construction,  and  worked  by  oxen.  The  first  attempt  to  culti- 
vate sugar  on  a  large  scale  was  at  Koloa,  on  Kauai,  where  Ladd  &  Co.,  a  firm  of 
Honolulu  merchants,  commenced  what  is  known  as  the  Koloa  Plantation  of 
Dr.  R.  W.  Wood.  This  was  about  the  year  1835,  and  the  first  breaking  up 
of  the  soil  for  planting  was  done  with  a  plow  drawn  by  natives.  From  1836 
to  1841,  sugar  was  exported  from  these  islands  to  the  value  of  $36,000,  and 
molasses  to  the  value  of  $17,130.  In  the  "  Hawaiian  Spectator"  for  April,  1838, 
the  late  William  Ladd  contributed  an  article  on  "  The  Resources  of  the  Sandwich 
Islands,"  in  which  he  speaks  thus  prophetically  of  the  manufacture  of  sugar,  then 
in  its  infancy  :  "  It  is  a  very  common  opinion  that  sugar  will  become  a  leading 
article  of  export.  That  this  will  become  a  sugar  country  is  quite  evident,  if  we 
may  judge  from  the  varieties  of  sugar-cane  now  existing  here,  its  adaptation  to  the 
soil,  the  price  of  labor,  and  a  ready  market.  From  experiments  hitherto  made,  it 
is  believed  that  sugar  of  a  superior  quality  may  be  produced  here.  *  *  *  It  may 
not  be  amiss  to  state  that  there  are  now  in  operation,  or  soon  to  be' erected,  twenty 
mills  for  crushing  cane,  propelled  by  animal  power,  and  two  by  water  power." 
/  The  price  of  labor  at  that  time,  was  indeed  an  argument  in  favor  of  making 

tthe  islands  a  sugar  producing  country,  which  unfortunatel^does  not  exist  now. 
Abundance  of  native  labor  could  then  be  had,  and  the  current  rate  of  wages  was 
from  12£  to  37£  cents  per  diem,  or  $2  to  $5  per  month. 

In  Wyllie's  "Notes"  on  the  islands,  published  in  the  "Friend,"  December, 
1844,  the  export  of  sugar  from  the  Island  of  Kauai  is  estimated  at  about  200  tons, 
and  20,000  gallons  of  molasses.  Hilo  in  the  same  year  exported  83,000  pounds  of 
sugar.  Maui  at  that  time  had  two  mills,  but  the  amount  of  sugar  produced  is  not 
reported.  That  was  twenty-eight  years  ago.  Since  then,  our  sugar  growing  busi- 
ness has  passed  through  many  vicissitudes.  As  is  generally  the  case  in  new  pur- 
suits, the  pioneers  have  in  many  instances  lost  their  time  and  money  in  their 
struggles  for  success,  and  those  who  have  come  after  have  learned  to  profit  by  their 
dear-bought  experience.  To-day,  the  total  number  of  sugar  plantations  is  thirty- 
two, — on  Hawaii,  nine;  Maui,  twelve;  Oahu,  seven;  and  Kauai,  four. 

The  Custom  House  statistics  have,  during  the  past  twenty  years,  given  sugar 
the  first  place  in  our  products  and  exports.  The  quantity  exported  in  1871  was 
21,760,773  pounds,  which  added  to  the  consumption  in  the  group,  gives  a  total  of 
twenty-two  millions  of  pounds.  Not  more  than  one-quarter  of  the  area  adapted 
to  cane  culture  is  at  present  under  cultivation.  Large  tracts  suited  to  cane  are 
neglected,  or  devoted  only  to  grazing,  from  want  of  capital  and  labor.  As  a  gen- 
eral rule,  droughts  are  rare,  and  rain  sufficiently  abundant,  in  all  localities,  both 
for  grazing  and  agricultural  purposes.  On  the  four  larger  islands  fine  sugar  plan- 
tations are  established  or  in  progress,  varying  from  two  hundred  to  several  thousand 
acres  in  extent.  On  these  are  some  of  the  largest,  most  complete  and  expensive 
sugar  mills  ever  constructed  in  any  country,  driven  by  steam  or  water,  and  capable 
of  manufacturing  six  to  ten  tons  of  sugar  a  day.  No  country  can  boast  of  finer 
mills  or  plantations,  or  more  perfect  arrangements  for  the  manufacture  of  sugar 
and  molasses.  As  a  matter  of  interest  abroad,  a  list  is  given  of  the  plantations 
at  present  in  operation  in  the  group,  with  their  average  crop,  and  the  capacity  of 
their  machinery : 


APPENDIX. 


205 


Kohala  Plantatioi 
Onomea        '' 
Kaupakuea  " 
Spencer        " 
Paukaa         " 
Kaiwiki        " 
Kona            '• 
Kau              " 
Kaaiaha  (Kohala) 
Ulupalakua  Plant 
Pioneer 
West  Maui 
Waikapu 
Wailuku 
Waihee 
East  Maui 

),  Hawaii 
ii 
ti 

«« 
u 

<( 
ation,  Maui 

M 

1C 

u 

Average      Capac 
crop.          of  mil 
600  tons.    1,000  to 
600    "        1,000 
500     "       1,000    ' 
500     ««        1,000     « 
300    «•           500 
400    "           600 
100    "           200 
150     »«           200 
100    «•           100 
800    "        1,200 
1,000     "        1,200 
600     "        1,200 
500     "           800 
800     «        1,200 
1,000    "        1,200 
500    "           800 

:y 

ns. 
i 

i 

Average      Capacity 
crop.           of  mill. 

liana            "              "    250    "          '400    •• 

Union  Mill   "               u    300     "           600     " 

Hawaiian  Mill  (Wailuku)       .          300    u          400    " 

Hobron(Makawao)  Plantation...  400    "          600    " 

Heeia               "              "    200    "          400    " 

Kaalaea           "              "    .  .  .  .      400    "       1  000    " 

Halawa            "               "    ....         60    "           200     " 

Waialua          "              "    100    "          200    " 

Laie                  "              "    ....       100    "          250    " 

Lihue              "         Kauai             400    ''       1  000    " 

Koloa               "              kt    250    "          '500    " 

Princeville       "              "    .  .  .  .      400    "        1  000    " 

Waipa             "              "    100    "          200    " 

The  plantations  now  in  operation  number  thirty-two,  producing  less  than  half 
the  sugar  which  they  are  capable  of  manufacturing.  This  is  owing  chiefly  to  the 
scarcity  of  laborers — a  want  which  is  each  year  more  seriously  felt.  Next  to 
Hawaiian  laborers,  who  are  considered  the  best  and  least  expensive,  Chinese  are 
sought  for.  As  they  are  always  ready  to  leave  their  country  and  migrate  to 
this  group,  it  is  probable  that  no  difficulty  will  be  encountered  in  obtaining  all  that 
may  be  needed. 

The  mode  of  manufacture  is  similar  to  that  pursued  in  other  sugar  countries. 
The  sugar  is  packed  at  the  mills — the  better  grades  in  kegs,  and  the  poorer  in 
bags,  and  carted  thence  to  the  nearest  port  or  anchorage,  from  which  it  is  shipped 
to  Honolulu  by  schooners  or  the  steamer  Kilauea,  a  vessel  of  four  hundred  tons 
burthen,  owned  by  the  Government,  which  makes  regular  weekly  trips  to  Maui 
and  Hawaii.  It  is  estimated  that  the  cost  of  manufacturing  sugar  here,  on  well- 
conducted  plantations,  is  about  five  cents  per  pound,  taking  all  grades  into  the 
estimate.  At  the  present  time  San  Francisco  is  the  principal  market  for  this  as  it 
is  for  most  of  our  productions,  though  Oregon  and  Australia  attract  a  portion  of 
the  sugar  crop,  the  average  net  price  realized  for  which  is  six  cents  a  pound. 

No  attempt  has  been  made  to  manufacture  sugar  from  the  beet  root,  which 
grows  well  in  almost  any  part  of  the  group.  But  it  is  not  improbable  that  within 
a  few  years  the  sugar  beet  will  be  as  extensively  cultivated  here  as  the  cane  now 
is,  and  that  on  the  same  plantations,  and  in  the  same  factories,  both  will  serve  to 
furnish  the  juice  for  sugar  manufacture.  It  is  believed  that  the  beet,  when  once 
introduced  and  its  peculiarities  studied  and  regarded,  will  be  found  a  strong  rival 
to  the  cane,  and  that  it  can  be  produced  by  native  labor  at  a  less  expense  than  cane 
now  is,  with  a  correspondingly  larger  profit  in  the  sugar  manufactured  from  it. 


OTHER  AGRICULTURAL  PRODUCTS. 

Next  to  sugar,  rice  is  extensively  cultivated  and  exported.  Hawaiian  rice  is 
in  high  favor  in  foreign  markets,  rating  next  to  Carolina  as  a  table  rice.  It  is  cul- 
tivated by  both  natives  and  Chinese  in  taro  patches ;  and  in  localities  where  run- 
ning water  is  abundant,  the  yield  per  acre  is  from  2,000  to  3,000  pounds  of  paddy 
(unhulled  rice),  which  sells  readily  at  two  cents  a  pound.  Eice  and  kalo  may  be 
seen  growing  side  by  side  in  nearly  every  valley  in  the  group,  the  former  supply- 
ing the  Chinese  with  their  staple  food,  and  the  latter  the  natives,  who  still  prefer 
the  kalo  and  its  product  poi  to  every  other  food.  The  quantity  of  paddy  and  rice 
exported  in  1871  was  1,284,563  pounds.  The  cultivation  of  this  grain  could  easily 
be  extended  to  ten  times  what  it  now  is,  were  the  necessary  labor  obtainable. 

PULU,  which  finds  a  place  among  our  exports,  is  the  product  of  the  tree-fern, 
which  grows  abundantly  on  the  mountain  slopes  of  the  principal  islands,  more  par- 
ticularly on  Hawaii,  and  flourishes  best  in  regions  of  perpetual  moisture.  It  is  a 
a  silky  substance  enveloping  the  fronds  of  the  plant,  and  when  dried  in  the  sun 
makes  an  excellent  article  for  mattresses  and  for  upholstering  purposes.  The 
quantity  produced  of  late  years  has  materially  declined. 


206  APPENDIX. 

WOOL,  HIDES  and  GOAT  SKINS  have  been  in  active  demand  the  past  few  years, 
and  the  quantity  exported  of  each  article  shows  a  decided  annual  gain.  The  offi- 
cial census  of  1866  gave  the  number  of  beef  cattle  on  the  islands  at  59,913;  sheep, 
100,625;  and  goats,  56,980.  But  this  amount  is  doubtless  considerably  below 
the  actual  numbers.  It  is  estimated  that  the  wild  cattle  alone  on  the  different 
islands  will  number  40,000  head,  and  100,000  cattle,  200,000  sheep  and  100,000 
goats  are  a  more  correct  estimate.  The  finest  of  Merinos  have  been  imported 
into  these  islands  from  time  to  time,  and  our  breeds  of  sheep  are  now  annually 
improving. 

STEAM  MAIL  LINES. 

The  establishment  of  steam  lines  between  the  ports  of  Honolulu  and  San  Fran- 
cisco in  one  direction,  and  New  Zealand  and  Australia  in  the  opposite,  has  increased 
the  foreign  trade  and  travel  with  those  countries,  by  furnishing  more  certain  and 
comfortable  means  of  crossing  the  ocean  in  either  direction,  in  much  less  time  than 
was  formerly  occupied.  This  is  more  especially  the  case  with  the  route  to  New 
Zealand  and  Australia,  whose  industrious  and  thriving  populations  have  a  new 
avenue  opened  for  their  untiring  industry  in  the  steam  line  which  now  connects 
them  with  the  Polynesian  groups  and  the  American  coast.  As  these  steam  lines 
increase  in  number,  and  this  port  is  brought  in  direct  communication  with  Japan, 
China,  Panama,  Tahiti,  South  America,  and  the  South  Pacific  island  clusters,  the 
advantages  of  its  position  will  become  more  apparent.  Easily  approached  by  sail 
or  steam,  from  every  quarter  of  the  compass,  and  lying  advantageously  between 
the  great  commercial  marts  of  this  ocean,  it  must,  of  necessity,  become  ere  long 
an  important  coaling  station,  and  perhaps  a  depot  for  the  storage  and  transhipment 
of  teas,  coffee,  sugar,  rice,  lumber,  oil,  coals,  and  other  commercial  products.  Coal 
is  now  admitted  free  of  duty,  whether  for  consumption  here,  or  for  re-exportation. 
It  will  only  be  necessary  to  extend  the  same  liberal  legislation  to  the  other  staples 
named,  in  order  to  attract  them  hither.  The  accompanying  table,  prepared  by 
Capt.  Daniel  Smith,  giving  the  distances  between  Honolulu  and  the  places  named, 
will  show  its  advantages  as  a  central  point : 


Honolulu  to  San  Francisco 2,100  miles. 

«  Yokohama,  Japan 3,400     " 

"  Hongkong,  China 4,880     " 

"  Papeete,  Tahiti 2,400     " 

"  Tutuila,  Navigator  Islands 2,290     " 

"  Levuka,Fiji 2,740     " 


Honolulu  to  Auckland,  New  Zealand 3,800  miles. 

"  Sydney,  N.  S.  \V .  (straight  line).  ..4,480 

"  Melbourne,  Port  Philip 4,960 

•'  Callao,  Peru 5,220 

«'  Valparaiso,  Chile 6,000 

"  Victoria,  V.I.  (straight  line) 2,350 


The  steamers  connecting  this  port  with  New  Zealand  and  Australia  are  large 
and  commodious  vessels  of  about  twenty-five  hundred  tons  burthen,  capable  of 
averaging  250  miles  a  day,  and  300  miles  when  necessary.  They  are  better 
adapted  to  the  tropical  route  over  which  they  run  than  any  other  class  of  steamers. 
The  mails  have  been  carried  through  from  London  to  Auckland,  via  San  Fran- 
cisco and  Honolulu,  in  forty-two  days,  and  to  Sydney  in  forty-eight ;  and  when 
the  line  is  fully  equipped  and  in  operation,  this  time  maybe  considerably  lessened. 
At  Honolulu  the  steamers  are  detained  about  twenty-four  hours  to  coal  and  refit, 
and  passengers  can  remain  over  one  or  more  trips  of  the  steamers,  should  they  de- 
sire to  travel  in  the  group.  The  variety  of  scenery  on  this  route — the  fine  and 
commodious  vessels  employed — the  opportunity  of  touching  at  these  islands — and 
the  unrivaled  diversity  of  .scenery  on  the  trans-continental  trip,  with  the  powerful 
and  swift  steamers  plying  between  New  York  and  England,  present  attractions 
such  as  no  other  route  possesses,  and  which  cannot  fail  to  make  it  popular  with 
tourists,  whether  seeking  pleasure  or  on  business. 

The  liberality  of  the  Hawaiian  Government  and  resident  citizens  has  provided 
a  first  class  hotel  at  this  port,  which  is  calculated  to  make  the  stay  at  Honolulu 
attractive  and  refreshing,  whether  it  be  for  one  day  or  longer.  This  building  is 
constructed  of  stone,  three  stories  in  height,  with  fifty-eight  sleeping  rooms,  and 
is  fitted  with  parlors,  dining,  reading  and  billiard  rooms,  and  with  every  modern 
convenience,  not  excepting  gaslight.  It  is  located  in  the  pleasantest  part  of  the 
town,  and  travelers  cannot  fail  to  find  it  worthy  of  their  patronage. 


APPENDIX.  207 

The  city  of  Honolulu  (including  a  circuit  of  four  miles  in  each  direction  from 
the  Post  Office)  has  a  population,  according  to  the  census  of  1866,  of  13,521  per- 
sons, of  whom  1,851  are  Americans  and  Europeans,  370  Chinese,  619  half-whites, 
and  10,681  are  pure  Hawaiians.  The  number  of  foreigners  and  Chinese  is  now 
much  larger.  The  number  of  dwellings  is  about  2,100,  which  are  constructed 
mostly  of  wood,  stone  or  brick,  and  from  one  to  three  stories  high. 

CLIMATE,  ETC. 

Some  interesting  data  have  been  collected  during  the  past  few  years  relative  to 
the  climate  and  meteorology  of  the  group.  Though  the  amount  of  rain  annually 
falling  may  be  fully  as  great  as  a  half  century  ago,  it  is  believed  to  be  less  equally 
distributed  through  the  year,  owing  to  the  destruction  of  the  forests  on  the  mountains 
and  of  the  groves  in  the  valleys  and  plains,  which  have  unquestionably  had  some 
influence  on  the  climate  of  these  islands,  as  they  have  in  other  countries.  This  is 
more  particularly  noticed  during  the  summer  months,  when  the  islands  are  more 
dependent  on  the  trade  winds  for  rain,  than  during  the  winter  months,  when  the 
southerly  storms  spread  the  rain  throughout  their  track,  on  land  and  sea  alike, 
without  regard  to  the  amount  of  verdure  on  the  land  over  which  they  pass.  The 
destruction  of  the  forests  and  groves  has  been  caused  in  a  great  measure  by  the 
herds  of  cattle,  sheep,  goats  and  horses  which  of  late  years  have  been  allowed  to 
increase  and  roam  unattended  over  the  hills  and  mountains,  tramping  down  and 
killing  the  young  trees  and  stripping  the  bark  and  foliage  from  those  of  more  ma- 
ture growth.  Forests  and  verdure  assist  in  collecting  the  clouds  which  give  the 
summer  showers,  so  refreshing  to  the  husbandman  in  the  season  when  most  needed, 
to  ensure  abundant  crops,  pasturage,  and  supplies  of  water  for  irrigation  and  man- 
ufacturing purposes. 

But  however  much  the  rain  fall  may  have  been  diminished  by  local  causes,  the 
trade  winds,  governed  by  laws  which  extend  across  hemispheres,  have  shown  no 
change  in  their  force  nor  in  the  invigorating,  healthful  influences  which  they  carry 
with  them,  and  which  render  life  so  attractive  in  this  and  other  ocean  groups  where 
they  prevail.  Statistics  show  that  they  blow  with  regularity  for  three-fourths  of 
the  year.  It  is  these  winds  which  render  navigation  so  safe  and  reliable  around 
this  group,  and  between  it  and  the  American  mainland.  With  ordinary  care  and 
seamanship  there  is  no  safer  ocean  to  navigate  than  this,  nor  one  where  losses  are 
less  frequent.  This  is  attributable  to  the  regularity  of  the  trade  winds,  clear 
weather  and  atmosphere  around  the  islands,  (fogs  being  almost  unknown,  except 
occasionally  during  the  southwest  winter  storms,)  and  to  the  employment  of  a 
steam  tug  at  this  harbor  kept  always  ready  for  service,  to  tow  vessels  either  in 
or  out,  or  render  assistance  in  case  of  necessity.  To  these  may  be  added  the 
admirable  wharves  in  the  harbor  built  by  Government,  which  are  probably  not  sur- 
passed by  those  of  any  port  of  its  size  in  the  world,  certainly  by  none  in  this  ocean. 
Every  vessel  that  can  cross  the  bar  can  come  up  to  the  wharves,  and  discharge  or 
load  with  as  much  dispatch  as  in  London  or  New  York. 

The  full  and  valuable  meteorological  tables  which  we  publish  on  pages  208  and 
209,  prepared  by  Capt.  Daniel  Smith  of  the  Harbor  Master's  office  in  this  city, 
possess  interest  to  those  wishing  to  examine  the  details  of  our  climate.  They 
show  the  range  of  the  thermometer  at  sunrise  and  at  2,  P.  M.,  and  also  the  barom- 
eterv  for  every  day  of  the  year,  with  the  direction  of  the  winds.  During  the  year 
1869,  the  trade  winds  (varying  from  E.  to  E.  N.  E.)  blew  290  days,  southerly  and 
variable  winds  and  calms  prevailing  for  the  remainder  of  the  year,  and  during  five 
years  reported  by  Capt.  Smith,  the  trade  winds  averaged  273  days  in  each  year. 

The  greatest  range  shown  during  the  year  1869  by  the  thermometer  is  from 
62  °  at  sunrise  in  January  to  80  °  at  sunrise  in  August,  and  at  2,  P.  M.,  from 
74  °  in  January  to  90  °  at  the  same  hour  in  August.  These  are  the  extreme 
readings  of  the  mercury  during  1869.  During  a  cold  westerly  storm  the  present 
year  (1872)  the  thermometer  dropped  on  the  24th  of  January  to  56  °  at  sunrise, 


208 


APPENDIX. 


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APPENDIX. 


209 


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27 


210 


APPENDIX. 


and  stood  at  68  °  at  2,  P.  M.  These  cold  spells  are  exceptional  and  rare,  the 
average  variation  in  the  temperature  from  sunrise  to  2,  P.  M.,  being  about  12  ° 
Fahrenheit. 

The  climate  of  the  islands  is  justly  famed  for  its  salubrity,  possessing  such  a 
remarkable  evenness  of  temperature  that  great  changes,  such  as  a  severe  storm 
with  cold  winds,  or  a  long  continuance  of  rainy  weather,  excite  special  notice. 
Though  situated  beneath  a  tropical  sun,  the  heat  is  mitigated  by  the  moist  breezes 
which  come  to  us  over  the  wide  expanse  of  ocean.  By  ascending  or  descending 
the  mountains,  the  temperature  gradually  changes,  and  any  desired  degree  can  be 
obtained,  from  the  perpetual  summer  of  the  sea-shore  to  the  eternal  winter  of  the 
tops  of  Mauna  Kea  and  Mauna  Loa.  While  at  the  sea-shore,  wherever  the  trade 
winds  blow,  the  ordinary  range  of  the  thermometer  is  12  °  per  diem,  at  an  ele- 
vation of  from  three  to  four  thousand  feet  the  temperature  varies  from  48°  to 
75  °  ,  and  the  general  average  is  about  64  °  . 

The  seasons  at  the  islands  may  be  divided  into  wet  and  dry,  though  they  are 
not  always  well  marked.  The  rain-fall  varies  very  much  between  localities  near 
the  sea  and  near  the  central  mountain  ranges.  For  instance,  at  Captain  Smith's 
residence,  near  the  sea  at  Waikiki,  it  seldom  exceeds  37  inches  per  annum ;  while 
at  Dr.  Judd's,  one  and  a  half  miles  inland,  it  averages  46.80.  Still  higher  up  the 
valley,  where  the  showers  at  some  seasons  are  very  frequent,  it  amounts  not  infre- 
quently to  over  100  inches  annually.  Captain  Smith  has  prepared  the  following 
average  for  eight  years,  which  will  serve  to  show  the  rain-fall  in  Honolulu,  and  the 
amount  falling  each  month  : 


WET  SEASON.  INCHES. 

October 5.47 

November, 6.15 

December 5.03 

January 5.30 

February ...: 5.02 

March 4.05 


DRY  SEASON.  INCHES. 

April 2 . 00 

May 1.25 

June 0.50 ' 

July 0.74 

August 1.20 

September 1.67 


Giving  a  yearly  average  of  38.38  inches. 


IMPORTS  AND  EXPORTS. 


To  those  residing  abroad  and  not  familiar  with  the  statistics  annually  published 
in  the  local  journals,  the  following  table,  prepared  by  the  Collector  General  of  Cus- 
toms at  the  port  of  Honolulu,  W.  F.  Allen,  Esq.,  will  give  a  better  idea  of  the 
agricultural  productions  of  this  group  than  any  other  data  that  can  be  furnished, 
They  are  the  exports  for  1871 : 


Sugar,  Ibs 21,760,773 

Molasses,  galls 271,291 

Paddy,  Ibs 867,452 

Rice,  Ibs 417,011 

Coffee,  Ibs .» 46,929 

Salt,  tons 71U 

Poi.bbls .. 965 

Fungus,  Ibs 37.475 

Bananas,  bnchs 3,876 

Beef,  bbls 817 

Hides,  pcs » 19,384 

•Calfskins,  phgs  40,  pcs 649 

Sheepskins,  pkgs  304,  pcs 2,028 

Goatskins,  pcs 58,900 

Tallow.  Ibs 185,240 

.Pulu,lbs 292720 

Wool,  Ibs 471,706 

Peanuts,  Ibs 68,153 

-Sperm  oil,  galls 4,867 

Whale  oil,  galls 140,319 

Whalebone,  Ibs 283 

The  total  value  of  the  exports  of  this  Kingdom  for  1871  are  given  by  the  same 
authority  at  $1,802,069.45.  The  value  of  the  imports  for  the  same  year  were 
$1^512,697.20,  showing  a  balance,  in  the  export  and  import  trade  of  1871,  of 
$289,462  in  favor  of  the  industry  of  the  Kingdom — a  result  which  very  few  older 
countries  can  present, 


Ivory,  Ibs 582 

Walrus  hides,  pcs 460 

Mules 7 

Horses 10 

Cat t le 202 

Sheep 103 

Hay,  bales  94,  tons 28£ 

Shark  fins,  pkgs 4 

Potatoes,  bbls 68 

Pumpkins 20 

Tamarinds,  bags 6 

Ginger,  pkgs 15 

Limes,  bxs  14,  and 2,000 

Oranges 1,150 

Watermelons 50 

Plants  and  seeds,  pkgs 5 

Betel  leaves,  cs 22 

Preserves,  cs 1 

Koa  lumber,  pcs 23 

Curios,  pkgs 39 


APPENDIX.  211 

The  following  table,  showing  the  import  and  export  trade  of  this  Kingdom  for 
twenty-one  years  (from  1851  to  1871),  together  with  other  data  relating  to  the 
commerce  of  the  group,  will  be  valuable  for  reference : 

COMPARATIVE  VIEW  OF  THE  COMMERCE  OF  THE  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS  FOR  21  YEARS. 


1871.. 
1870.. 
1869.. 
1868.. 
1867.. 
1866., 
1865.. 
1864.. 
1863.. 
1862.. 
1861.. 
I860.. 
1859.. 
1858., 
1857.. 
1856., 
1855.. 
1854.. 
1853., 
1852.. 
1851.. 


TOTAL  IMPORTS. 


$1,512,697 
1,930,227 
2,040,068 
1,935,790 
1,957,410 
1,993,821 
1,946,265 
1,712,241 
1,175,493 
998,239 
761,109 
1,223,749 
1,555,558 
1,089,660 
1,130,165 
1.151,422 
1^83,169 
1,590,837 
1,401,975 
759,868 
1,823,821 


TOTAL,   EXPORTS 
AND  SUPPLIES. 


$1,802,069 

2,144,942 

2,366,358 

1,898,215 

1,679,661 

1,934,576 

1,808,257 

1,662,181 

1,025,852 

838,424 

659,774 

807,459 

931,329 

787,082 

645,526 

670,824 

572,601 

585,122 

472,996 

638,395 

691,231 


DOMESTIC  PRO- 
DUCE EXPORTED. 


$1,656,644 

1,403,025 

1,639,091 

1,340,469 

1,205,622 

1,396,621 

1,430,211 

1,113,328 

744,413 

586,541 

476,872 

480,526 

628,575 

529,966 

423,303 

466,278 

274,741 

274.029 

281,500 

257,251 

309,828 


FOREIGN 
MERCHANDISE 
RE-EXPORTED. 


46  $158,974 
630,517 
623,067 
447,946 
355,539 
428,755 
287,045 
548,852 
281,439 
251,882 
182,901 
326,932 
302,754 
257,115 
222,222 
204,545 
297,859 
311,092 
191,397 
381,142 
381,402 


TOTAL, 

CUSTOM  HOUSE 
RECEIPTS. 


$221,332  34 
223,815  75 
215,798  42 
210,076  30 
220,599  91 
215,047  08 
192,566  63 
159,116  72 
122,752  68 
107,490  42 
100,115  56 
117,302  57 
132,129  37 
116,138  23 
140,777  03 
123,171  75 
158,411  90 
152,125  58 
155,650  17 
113,001  93 
160,602  19 


1871. 
1870. 
1869. 
1868. 
1867. 
1866. 
1865. 
1864. 
1863. 
1862. 
1861. 
1860. 
1859. 
1858. 
1857- 
1856. 
1855 
1854. 
1853. 
1852. 
1851. 


OIL  AND  BONE  TRANSHIPPED. 


Galls. 
Sperm. 


63,310 

105,234 

157,690 

106,778 

103,215 

103,957 

42,841 

33,860 

56,687 

12,522 

20,435 

47,859 

156,360 


121,294 
109,308 
156,484 


173,490 
104,362 


Galls. 
Whale. 


283,055 
1,443,809 
1,698,189 
774,913 
821,929 
1,204,275 
578,593 
608,502 
675,344 
460,407 
795,988 
782,086 
1,668,175 


222,4642,551.382 
176,3062,018,027 


1,641,579 
1,436,810 
1,683,922 


175,396  3,787,348  2,020,264 


Pounds 
Bone. 


29,362 

632,905 
627,770 
596,043 
405,140 
211,178 
337,394 
339,331 
337,043 
193,920 
527.910 
572.900 
1,147,120 
1,614,710 
1,295,525 
1,074,942 
872,954 
1,479,678 


1,182,738  3,159,951 
909,379 


NUMBER 
NATIONAL 


9 

16 
7 
9 
9 
5 
7 
9 
7 
7 
7 

10 
5 

10 

10 

9 

13 
16 
7 
3 
7 


No.  i  Ton'ge. 


171 
159 
127 
113 
134 
151 
151 
116 

88 
113 

94 
117 
139 
115 

82 
123 
154 
125 
211 
235 
446 


105,993 
91,248 
75,656 
54,833 
60,268 
62,142 
67,068 
75,339 
42,930 
48,687 
45,962 
41,226 
59,241 
45,875 
26,817 
42,213 
51,304 
47,288 
59,451 
61,065 
87,920 


NUMBER 
ENTRIES 
WHALERS. 


47 

118* 
102* 

153* 
243* 
229* 
180* 
140* 
102* 
73* 
190* 
325* 
549* 
526* 
387* 
366* 
468* 
525* 
535* 
519* 
220* 


GALLONS 

SPIRITS 

CONSUMED. 


18,823 
19,948 
17,016 
16,030 
15,144 
13,135 
11,745 
10,237 
7,862 
8,940 
9,676 
14,295 
14,158 
14,637 
16,144 
14,779 
18,318 
17,537 
18,123 
14,150 
9,500 


901,604 

*These  figures  give  the  Total  Arrivals  of  Whalers  at  various  ports— some  of  the  vessels  entering  two  or  more 

during  the  year. 


212 


APPENDIX. 


The  following  table,  showing  the  kinds  and  value  of  the  importations  for  1871, 
will  interest  the  reader : 


DESCRIPTION. 

VALUE  OF  GOODS 
PAYING  DUTY. 

VALUE   GOODS 
IN  BOND. 

TOTAL. 

$t  91  477  67 

ft    5  441    1  9 

$'  26  918  79 

1  286  50 

1  236  50 

22  510  58 

1  217  04 

23  727  62 

167  468  45 

9  689  02 

177  157  47 

12  330  13 

315  46 

12  645  59 

14  542  41 

209  56 

14  751  96 

f  Cottons  

148  879  68 

9  076  57 

157  956  25 

13  319  64 

585  04 

13  904  68 

Dry  Goods  {  Silks  

8  433  48 

438  02 

8  871  45 

|  Woolens  

44  457  43 

3  347  50 

47  804  93 

23  762  39 

1  693  00 

25'455  39 

Fancy  Goods,  Millinery,  etc  

44,743  78 

2  065  83 

46  809  61 

19,782  07 

12  657  44 

32  439  51 

Flour  

39,314  85 

15  767  23 

55  082  08 

Fruits  (fresh)  

2  054  58 

2  054  58 

Furniture  

24,087  28 

1  112  60 

25  199  88 

68  50 

1  856  00 

1  924  50 

14,918  30 

853  98 

15*772  28 

Groceries  and  Provisions  

76,525  54 

41  025  50 

117  551  04 

Hardware,  Agricultural  Implements,  Tools,  &c.  . 
Iron  and  Steel  

91,410  88 
16,186  31 

2,555  89 
5  350  63 

93,966  77 
21  536  94 

Jewelry,  Plate,  Clocks  

19,044  26 

215  10 

19,259  36 

77,714  34 

3^6  63 

78  040  97 

22,733  09 

82  00 

22  815  09 

7,345  70 

7  345  70 

Naval  Stores  

30,640  03 

45,202  4'.) 

75,842  43 

Oils  (Whale,  Kerosene,  Cocoanut,  &c  )  

11,292  70 

38,827  27 

50,119  97 

13,003  17 

13,003  17 

Paints  and  Paint  Oils  

11,622  65 

56  87 

11,679  52 

Perfumery,  Toilet  Articles  

5,088  07 

1,231  75 

6,319  82 

Saddlery,  Carriages,  &c  

28,780  21 

1,527  28 

30,307  49 

Shocks,  Containers  

47,293  27 

33,718  96 

81,012  23 

2,686  67 

31,390  43 

34,077  10 

Stationery,  Books,  &c  

24,847  87 

538  19 

25,386  06 

Tea  

6,768  29 

7  83 

6,776  12 

Tin,  Tinware  

3,941  91 

8,941  91 

Tobacco,  Cigars  

23,633  28 

8,656  02 

82,289  30 

Whalebone  

10  00 

10  00 

Wines  (light)  

7,113  13 

1  003  36 

8,116  49 

Sundry  Merchandise  not  included  in  above  
Sundry  Merchandise  imported  by  Whalers  . 

34,711  27 
1,334  63 

7,177  74 

41,889  01 
1,334  63 

Sundry  Unspecified  Merchandise. 

2,559  13 

2,559  13 

Charges  on  Invoices  

47,640  06 

5,315  46 

52,955  52 

Twenty-five  per  ct.  added  on  Uncertified  Invoices. 

7,627  00 

2,100  62 

9,727  62 

$1,244,941  13 

$292,635  33 

$1,537,576  46 

THE  TARIFF. — The  import  duties  levied  at  the  Custom  House  upon  merchan- 
dise entered  for  consumption,  is  generally  10  per  cent,  ad  valorem  on  the  invoice 
cost ;  the  following  being  the  exceptions  : 

1.  Such  importations  as  are  allowed  free  by  law. 

2.  Tobacco  and  Opium,  and  all  manufactures  thereof,  15  per  cent,  ad  valorem. 

3.  Alcohol,  $10  per  gallon. 

4.  Alcohol  for  medicinal,  mechanical  or  scientific  purposes,  upon  proper  appli- 
cation, 50  per  cent,  ad  valorem. 

5.  Spirits  and  Perfumery,  when  over  30  °  of  alcoholic  strength  and  under 
55  °  ,  S3  per  gallon. 

6.  Wines,  when  over  18°  and  less  than  30°  of  alcoholic  strength,  $1  50 
per  gallon. 


APPENDIX.  213 

7.  Light  Wines,  Champagne,  Khine,  etc.,  15  per  cent,  ad  valorem. 
S.  Sugar,  the  product  of  any  country  with  which  this  Government  has  no  ex- 
isting treaty,  2  cents  per  pound. 

9.  Molasses,  the  product  of  any  country  with  which  this  Government  has  no 
existing  treaty,  10  cents  per  gallon. 

10.  Coffee,  the  product  of  any  country  with  which  this  Government  has  no  ex- 
isting treaty,  3  cents  per  pound. 

11.  Rice,  the  product  of  any  country  with  which  this  Government  has  no  ex- 
isting treaty,  cleaned  1J  cents  per  pound — in  the  husk  1  cent  per  pound. 

It  is  required  that  all  invoices  presented  at  the  Custom  House  for  entry,  shall 
have  attached  the  certificate  of  the  Hawaiian  Consul  at  the  port  or  place  of  ship- 
ment, otherwise  as  a  penalty  25  per  cent,  is  added  to  the  invoice  value,  and  the 
usual  duties  levied  upon  the  increase. 

There  are  no  transhipment  or  export  duties  or  tonnage  dues. 

The  usual  port  charges  are  :  Pilotage — anchoring  outside,  $10 ;  anchoring 
without  pilot's  services,  when  boarded  by  pilot  as  health  officer,  $5 ;  entering  or 
leaving  harbor,  per  foot  of  vessel's  draft,  $1 ;  buoys,  $2;  lighthouse,  S3;  harbor 
master's  fees,  mooring  or  unmooring,  $3 ;  wharfage,  per  ton,  each  day,  2  cents 
(Sundays  not  counted.) 

Passengers  arriving  from  foreign  ports  are  taxed  two  dollars  each,  upon  the 
granting  of  permits  to  land,  which  tax  is  collected  at  the  Custom  House,  and  is  for 
the  benefit  of  the  Queen's  Hospital.  All  passengers  departing,  after  a  residence 
of  thirty  days,  are  required  to  procure  a  passport ;  and  any  vessel  taking  a  person 
away  without  such  passport,  is  liable  to  a  fine,  as  well  as  for  all  debts  which  such 
passenger  may  have  left  unsettled.  This  law  does  not  apply  to  passengers  arriv- 
ing in  transitu  to  or  from  the  Colonies  and  America  or  Europe. 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF  HAWAIIAN  VOLCANOES. 


THE  recent  eruptions  on  Hawaii  have  excited  a  world-wide  interest  in  Hawaiian 
volcanoes,  which  will  render  a  sketch  of  them  not  inappropriate  in  a  work  of  this 
kind.  A  portion  of  what  follows  appeared  in  supplements  to  the  u  Pacific  Com- 
mercial Advertiser,"  issued  March  26,  1859,  and  May  9,  1868: 

The  only  island  of  our  group  which  has,  within  the  memory  of  man,  been 
known  to  be  in  a  state  of  volcanic  action,  is  HAWAII.  All  the  others  are  of  more 
ancient  formation.  It  consists  of  four  principal  mountain  divisions, — the  Kohala 
range  at  the  north,  which  is  evidently  of  very  old  formation,  Mauna  Kea,  an 
extinct  volcano,  Mauna  Hualalai,  on  the  western  coast,  which  has  not  been  in 
action  since  1801,  and  Mauna  Loa,  which  is  now  the  only  active  volcano  in  the 
group.  The  height  of  these  three  mountain  peaks,  as  measured  by  Captain 
Wilkes,  are :  Mauna  Loa,  13,760  feet;  Mauna  Kea,  13,950  feet;  and  Hualalai, 
10,000  feet. 

Whether  we  view  its  height  and  immense  size,  the  beauty  and  singularity  of 
its  dome-like  summit,  or  the  magnitude  and  length  of  its  lava  streams,  the  Volcano 
of  Mauna  Loa,  on  Hawaii,  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  in  the  world,  rising  from 
the  sea  to  an  elevation  of  nearly  14,000  feet.  In  height  it  is  only  exceeded  by  the 
active  volcanoes  of  Cotopaxi,  in  Ecuador,  (18,887  feet,)  that  of  Popocatepetl,  in 
Mexico,  (17,700  feet,)  and  two  or  three  others  in  Asia  and  America.  All  these, 
however,  rise  from  elevated  table  lands,  and  consequently  only  show  a  height  of 


214  APPENDIX. 

7  to  9,000  feet  from  their  bases.  Mauna  Loa,  on  the  contrary,  rises  in  one  stu- 
pendous mount  directly  from  the  sea,  and,  as  seen  by  vessels  passing  it,  forms  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  sights  in  the  world,  its  summit  being  apparently  as  symmet- 
rical as  the  dome  of  a  cathedral,  and  generally  dotted  or  covered  with  snow. 

On  this  vast  mountain  exist  two  craters,  that  of  Mokuaweoweo  on  the  summit, 
and  Kilauea  on  the  southern  slope,  both  of  which  are  seldom  inactive.  The  sum- 
mit crater  is  surpassed  in  extent  only  by  that  of  Haleakala  on  Maui.  It  was  first 
described  by  the  lamented  English  traveler,  Douglas,  who  visited  it  in  1834,  and 
subsequently  lost  his  life  on  the  same  mountain.  Its  size,  as  measured  by  Lieu- 
tenant Wilkes,  is  11,000  feet  long  and  8000  feet  wide,  being  about  six  miles  in  cir- 
cumference. Its  average  depth  is  800  feet.  The  bottom  of  this  crater  is  rent  by 
terrible  chasms,  which  to  all  attempts  yet  made  are  unfathomable.  It  is  divided 
into  three  lesser  ones,  the  most  northern  of  which  is  known  as  Mokuaweoweo. 

The  crater  of  Kilauea,  being  much  more  accessible  that  than  of  Mokuaweoweo, 
is  the  chief  point  of  interest  with  tourists.  It  is  approached  either  from  Kau,  (the 
most  southern  district  of  the  island,)  over  a  tolerably  good  road,  or  from  Hilo,  dis- 
tant 29J  miles,  over  a  rough  and  often  muddy  road,  requiring  from  six  to  ten  hours, 
to  accomplish  it,  according  to  its  condition.  The  "  Volcano  House,"  kept  by  an 
intelligent  Hawaiian,  is  provided  with  the  necessaries  and  food  required  by  trav- 
elers. The  government  steamer  makes  monthly  trips  to  Hilo,  and  weekly  trips  to 
Kealakeakua  Bay,  occasionally  running  to  Kau.  The  cost  of  the  round  trip  from 
Honolulu  to  the  crater  and  back,  by  either  route,  is  from  sixty  to  one  hundred  dol- 
lars, according  to  the  tastes  of  the  traveler. 

The  crater  of  Kilauea,  called  by  the  natives  " Lua  Pele"  or  Pele's  Pit,  is  sim- 
ply a  deep  pit  of  oval  form,  about  two  by  three  miles  in  extent,  its  walls  varying 
from  five  hundred  to  one  thousand  feet  in  height.  Its  bottom  or  floor  is  very  un- 
even, and  subject  to  frequent  changes  caused  by  eruptions.  The  level  of  this 
floor  appears  to  have  varied  several  hundred  feet  during  the  past  forty  years.  It 
is  seldom  seen  in  action  throughout  its  entire  extent,  the  lava  flow  being  generally 
confined  to  one  or  more  lakes,  which  are  sometimes  connected  by  streams  of  lava 
flowing  from  one  lake  to  another.  The  view  of  this  crater  given  at  the  commence- 
ment of  this  Appendix,  represents  it  as  it  appeared  early  in  the  present  century, 
when  there  was  more  activity  than  now. 

The  eruptions  of  Mauna  Loa  are  not  confined,  however,  to  these  two  craters, 
but  occur  on  all  sides  of  the  mountain  and  at  various  heights,  from  5,000  to  12,000 
feet  above  the  sea.  It  is  only  of  the  eruptions  occurring  during  the  present  cen- 
tury that  authentic  data  have  been  preserved,  and  of  these  we  propose  to  give  as 
full  an  account  as  our  limits  will  permit,  commencing  with  that  of  Mount  Hualalai, 
which  took  place  in  1801,  and  is  the  only  one  recorded  on  that  mountain.  The 
description  is  taken  from  Rev.  William  Ellis'  "  Tour  Around  Hawaii,"  as  given 
by  the  English  traveler  Turnbull,  who  witnessed  it : 

THE  ERUPTION  OF  1801  ON  MOUNT  HUALALAI. 

"  In  the  afternoon,  Messrs.  Thurston  and  Bishop  walked  out  in  a  northwest 
direction,  till  they  reached  the  point  that  forms  the  northern  boundary  of  the  bay, 
on  the  eastern  side  of  which  Kailua  is  situated.  It  runs  three  or  four  miles  into 
the  sea,  is  composed  entirely  of  lava,  and  was  formed  by  an  eruption  from  one  of 
the  large  craters  on  the  top  of  Mauna  Hualalai,  (Mount  Hualalai,)  which,  about 
twenty-three  years  ago,  inundated  several  villages,  destroyed  a  number  of  planta- 
tions and  extensive  fish-ponds,  filled  up  a  deep  bay  twenty  miles  in  length,  and 
formed  the  present  coast.  An  Englishman,  who  has  resided  thirty-eight  years  in 
the  islands,  and  who  witnessed  the  above  eruption,  has  frequently  told  us  he  was 
astonished  at  the  irresistible  impetuosity  of  the  torrent.  Stone  walls,  trees,  and 
houses,  all  gave  way  before  it ;  even  large  masses  or  rocks  of  hard  ancient  lava, 
when  surrounded  by  the  fiery  stream,  soon  split  into  small  fragments,  and  falling 


APPENDIX. 


215 


into  the  burning  mass,  appeared  to  melt  again,  as  borne  by  it  down  the  mountain's 
side.  Numerous  offerings  were  presented,  and  many  hogs  thrown  alive  into  the 
stream,  to  appease  the  anger  of  the  gods,  by  whom  they  supposed  it  was  directed, 
and  to  stay  its  devastating  course.  All  seemed  unavailing,  until  one  day  the  king 
Kamehameha  went,  attended  by  a  large  retinue  of  chiefs  and  priests,  and,  n*  the 
most  valuable  offerings  he  could  make,  cut  off  part  of  his  own  hair,  which  was 
always  considered  sacred,  and  threw  it  into  the  torrent.  A  day  or  two  after,  the 
lava  ceased  to  flow.  The  gods,  it  was  thought,  were  satisfied ;  and  the  king  ac- 
quired no  small  degree  of  influence  over  the  minds  of  the  people,  who,  from  this 
circumstance,  attributed  their  escape  from  threatened  destruction  to  his  supposed 
influence  with  the  deities  of  the  volcanoes." 

OLD  ERUPTIONS  ON  MAUNA  LOA. 

I.  1789. — "  The  first  eruption  of  Kilauea,  of  which  tradition  gives  any  defin- 
ite knowledge,  occurred  about  the  year  1789,  during  the  wars  and  conquests  of  Ka- 
mehameha I.    It  took  place  between  Kilauea  and  the  sea,  in  a  south-easterly  direc- 
tion.    It  is  said  to  have  been  accompanied  by  violent  earthquakes  and  rendings  of 
the  earth,  and  an  eruption  of  stones  and  cinders  from  the  open  fissures.    It  was  so 
violent  and  extensive  that  the  heavens  were  completely  darkened,  and  one  hundred 
lives  are  supposed  to  have  been  lost.     There  are  now,  over  a  large  area  near  Ki- 
lauea, a  few  miles  distant  to  the  south  or  southeast,  great  quantities  of  a  light 
pumice-like  scoria  with  stones  and  sand,  which  are  believed  to  have  been  thrown 
out  at  this  time."     [This  eruption  is  spoken  of  in  Dibble's  History,  as  having  de- 
stroyed part  of  the  army  of  Keoua,  Kamehameha's  rival.] 

II.  1823.—"  The  outbreak  of  1823,  and  the  features  of  the  crater  after  it, 
are  described  by  Mr.  Ellis.     A  large  tract  of  country  in  Kau  was  flooded,  and  the 
stream,  when  it  reached  the  sea,  as  I  am  informed  by  Mr.  Coan,  was  five  to  eight 
miles  wide.     The  earth  is  said  to  have  been  rent  in  several  places,  and  the  lavas 
were  ejected  through  the  fissures,  commencing  their  course  above  ground  some 
miles  south  of  Kilauea.     There  was  no  visible  communication  with  the  lavas  of 
the  crater  at  the  time,  but  the  fact  of  their  subsiding  some  hundreds  of  feet  simul- 
taneously with  the  eruption,  is  satisfactory  evidence  of  a  connection."     [This  over- 
flow probably  entered  the  sea  at  Kapapala.     It  is  spoken  of  by  Douglas,  in  the 
"  Hawaiian  Spectator,"  vol.  ii,  page  415.] 

III.  1832. — "  In  June,  1832,  an  eruption  took  place  both  from  Kilauea  and 
the  summit  crater  of  Mauna  Loa.     The  only  ejection  at  this  time  of  the  lavas  of 
Kilauea  to  the  surface,  of  which  we  have  definite  account,  occurred  in  the  east 
wall  from  which  streams  flowed  out,  part  back  into  Kilauea  down  the  steep  slope,  and 
part  across  into  the  old  crater,  which  at  the  time  was  overgrown  with  wood.  *  *  * 

"  In  September  of  1832,  when  Rev.  J.  Goodrich  visited  Kilauea,  the  eruption 
had  taken  place.  The  lavas,  which  previously  had  increased  so  as  to  fill  up  to  the 
black  ledge  and  fifty  feet  above,  had  sunk  down  again  nearly  to  the  same  depth, 
leaving,  as  usual,  a  boiling  cauldron  at  the  south  end.  The  earthquake  of  January 
(June  ?)  preceding  had  rent  in  twain  the  walls  of  the  crater,  on  the  east  side,  from 
top  to  bottom,  producing  seams  from  a  few  inches  to  several  yards  in  width,  from 
which  the  region  between  the  two  craters  (Kilauea  and  the  'Old  Crater')  was 
deluged  with  lava.  About  half  way  up  the  precipice  there  was  a  vent  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  in  length,  from  which  immense  masses  of  lava  boiled  out  directly  under 
the  hut  occupied  by  Lord  Byron's  party."  See  "  American  Journal  of  Science," 
xxv,  199. 

"  From  these  accounts  (Goodrich's,  &c.,)  it  is  probable  that,  in  addition  to  the 
ejections  from  the  east  wall,  which  are  insufficient  to  account  for  the  subsidence  in 
the  lower  pit,  there  must  have  been  a  subterranean  outlet  beneath  the  sea." 

"  An  eruption  is  stated  to  have  taken  place  in  the  summit  crater  of  Mauna 
Loa  on  the  20th  of  June,  1832,  and  the  mountain  continued  burning  for  two  or 


216  APPENDIX. 

three  weeks.  The  lavas  broke  out  in  different  places,  and  were  discharged  from 
so  many  vents,  that  the  fires  were  seen  on  every  side  of  the  dome,  and  were 
visible  as  far  as  Lahaina."  See  "  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  xxv,  201, 
in  a  communication  from  Rev.  J.  Goodrich,  dated  November  17th,  1832. 

Whis  eruption  on  the  summit  was  doubtless  connected  with  that  in  Kilauea,  and 
should  be  considered  as  part  of  it,  although  not  simultaneous  with  it. 

IV.— THE  ERUPTION  OF  1840. 

The  best  account  published  of  this  eruption  of  Kilauea  is  given  by  J.  J.  Jarve* 
in  his  "  Scenes  and  Scenery  "  : 

"  On  the  30th  of  May,  (1840,)  the  inhabitants  of  the  district  detected  a  smoke 
and  some  fire  rising  in  the  direction  of  the  volcano,  (Kilauea.)  As  it  proceeded 
from  an  uninhabited  and  desolate  region,  they  gave  themselves  no  further  concern 
about  it,  attributing  it  to  the  burning  of  brush-wood.  The  next  day,  being  Sun- 
day, the  several  congregations  at  Hilo  and  its  vicinity,  were  alarmed  by  the  prodi- 
gious increase  of  the  flames  in  that  quarter.  They  increased  so  rapidly  as  to  leave 
no  doubt  that  the  volcano  was  in  motion  ;  but  in  what  manner  it  was  discharging 
itself,  was  as  yet  conjecture.  The  fiery  column,  sending  forth  heavy  masses  of 
smoke  and  cinders,  gave  indication  that  it  was  no  ordinary  outbreak.  Fear  began 
to  seize  upon  some.  The  burning  torrent  was  four  thousand  feet  above  them,  and 
if  it  turned  in  the  direction  of  Hilo,  the  devastation  would  be  dreadful.  But  on 
the  1st  of  June  it  began  to  move  in  a  northeasterly  direction,  and  in  a  little  short 
of  four  days  reached  the  sea,  having  flowed  forty  miles  from  its  source.  Owing 
to  the  inequalities  of  the  country,  the  rapidity  of  its  movement  was  not  uniform. 
In  some  places  it  was  stayed  for  a  considerable  time,  until  a  valley  had  been  filled 
up,  or  precipice  overthrown.  In  such  spots  it  spread  itself  into  lakes  many  miles 
wide.  On  level  ground  it  moved  slowly  and  sluggishly,  but  when  it  met  with  a 
descent,  it  acquired  a  velocity  of  even  five  miles  the  hour,  consuming  everything 
before  it.  Its  depth  varied  according  to  the  nature  of  the  soil,  and  is  from  twelve 
to  two  hundred  feet  and  upwards.  The  average  descent  of  the  country  in  the 
direction  it  took,  is  about  one  hundred  feet  to  the  mile.  Its  general  movement, 
owing  to  its  great  consistency,  was  in  immense  semicircular  masses  or  waves. 
These  would  roll  on,  gradually  accumulating,  until  the  mass  had  become  too 
heavy  to  hold  itself  together,  while  the  exterior  was  partially  cooled  and  solidified  ; 
then  bursting,  the  liquified  interior  flowing  out  would  join  a  new  stream,  and  by  its 
momentum  cleave  that  asunder.  By  these  accelerated  progressive  movements,  the 
wave-like  ridges  were  formed,  which  are  everywhere  observable  on  the  older  dykes. 
At  times,  it  forced  its  way  under  the  soil,  presenting  the  singular  appearance  of 
earth,  rocks,  and  trees  in  motion,  like  the  swell  of  the  ocean.  It  found  its  way 
into  crevices  and  subterranean  galleries,  flowing  on  until  it  had  filled  them  up,  or 
met  with  some  impediment,  then  bursting  up  the  superincumbent  soil,  it  bore  off 
upon  its  livid  surface,  like  rafts  on  a  river,  hillocks  with  trees  still  standing  upon 
them  ;  and  so  great  was  its  viscidity,  heavy  rocks  floated  down  with  the  stream.  A 
white  man,  who  was  standing  upon  a  small  lime-hill,  near  the  main  stream,  ab- 
sorbed by  the  spectacle,  felt  the  ground  beneath  him  in  motion,  and,  before  he 
could  retire,  it  had  been  raised  ten  to  fifteen  feet  above  its  former  height.  He  had 
barely  left  the  spot  before  it  burst  open  like  a  shell,  and  a  torrent  of  fire  issued  rap- 
idly forth.  On  the  third  day  of  the  eruption,  three  new  hills  of  a  mile  in  length, 
and  from  six  hundred  to  eight  hundred  feet  high,  were  formed  in  the  direction 
where  the  fire  first  appeared. 

"  To  the  windward,  the  running  lava  could  be  approached  near  enough  for  those 
who  wished  it  to  thrust  long  poles  into  the  liquified  rock,  and  draw  forth  specimens. 
On  the  leeward  side,  owing  to  the  intensity  of  the  heat,  the  noxious  and  deadly 
vapors  and  gases,  with  which  the  air  was  impregnated,  and  the  showers  of  hot 
ashes,  sand,  and  cinders,  which  were  constantly  descending,  all  vegetation  for  many 


APPENDIX.  217 

miles  was  destroyed,  and  the  inhabitants  obliged  to  flee  with  the  greatest  expedi- 
tion. Fortunately  the  stream  flowed  through  two  *  lands  '  only,  according  to  the 
Hawaiian  division  of  territory,  those  of  JNanawale  and  Kanahikio,  both  sparsely 
populated  and  quite  barren.  Consequently,  the  warning  being  ample,  although 
a  number  of  small  hamlets  were  overwhelmed,  and  a  multitude  of  swine  and  poul- 
try perished,  no  lives  were  lost  among  the  people.  The  body  of  an  old  woman, 
who  had  just  died,  was  consumed.  The  color  of  the  viscid  mass  was,  while  flow- 
ing sluggishly,  of  the  deepest  crimson ;  when  more  active,  it  resembled  gore  and 
fresh  blood  violently  stirred  together.  At  Hilo,  and  places  forty  miles  distant,  such 
was  the  brilliancy  of  the  light,  that  the  finest  print  could  be  easily  read  at  midnight. 
This  noon-tide  brightness,  converting  night  into  day,  prevailed  over  all  East- 
Hawaii  for  two  weeks,  and  is  represented,  by  eye-witnesses,  to  have  been  a  spec- 
tacle of  unsurpassed  sublimity.  It  was  like  the  glare  of  a  blazing  firmament,  and 
was  seen  for  upwards  of  a  hundred  miles  at  sea.  It  also  rose  and  spread  itself 
above  the  lofty  mountain  peaks,  so  as  to  be  distinctly  visible  on  the  leeward  side 
of  the  island,  where  the  wind  blew  the  smoke  in  dense  and  massy  clouds." 

V.— THE  ERUPTION  OF  1843. 

An  eruption  took  place  in  January,  1S43,  which  is  described  by  Messrs.  An- 
drews and  Coan,  in  the  "Missionary  Herald,"  vol.  xxxix,  pp.  381,  463,  and  vol. 
xl,  p.  44.  It  broke  out  at  the  summit  on  the  10th  of  January,  and  ran  down  the 
slopes  of  Mauna  Loa  in  two  streams;  one  flowing  to  the  westward  towards  Kona, 
the  other  northward  to  the  foot  of  Mauna  Kea,  and  then  dividing,  one  stream  con- 
tinued on  towards  Waimea,  north-eastward,  and  the  other  towards  Hilo,  eastward. 
The  branch  toward  Mauna  Kea  is  described  as  twenty-five  or  thirty  miles  long, 
and  averaging  one  and  a  half  miles  in  width.  Mr.  Coan,  in  his  description,  says 
of  its  origin  :  "  On  the  morning  of  January  10th,  before  day,  we  discovered  a  small 
beacon-fire  near  the  top  of  Mauna  Loa.  This  was  soon  found  to  be  a  new  erup- 
tion on  the  northeast  slope  of  the  mountain,  at  an  elevation  of  near  thirteen  thous- 
and feet. 

"  Subsequently,"  Mr.  Coan  continues,  "  the  lava  appeared  to  burst  out  at  sev- 
eral points  lower  down  the  mountain,  from  whence  it  flowed  off  in  the  direction  of 
Mauna  Kea,  filling  the  valley  between  the  mountains  with  a  sea  of  fire.  Here  the 
stream  divided,  part  flowing  toward  Waimea,  and  the  other  eastward  toward  Hilo. 
Still  another  stream  flowed  along  the  base  of  Mauna  Loa  to  Hualalai,  in  Kona.  For 
about  four  weeks  this  scene  continued  without  much  abatement,"  &c.  Ascending 
the  mountain,  Mr.  Coan  reached  the  stream  of  lava  between  Mauna  Loa  and 
Mauna  Kea,  about  7000  feet  above  the  sea.  On  the  evening  of  the  third  day,  "  as 
darkness  gathered  around  us,  the  lurid  fires  of  the  volcano  began  to  glow  and  to 
gleam  upon  us  from  the  foot  of  Mauna  Kea,  over  all  the  plain  between  the  two 
mountains,  and  up  the  side  of  Mauna  Loa  and  its  snow-crowned  summit,  exhibit- 
ing the  appearance  of  vast  and  innumerable  furnaces  burning  with  intense  vehe- 
mence. On  this  plain  we  spent  the  day  in  traversing  and  surveying  the  immense 
streams  of  fresh  scoria  and  slag  which  by  in  wild  confusion  further  than  the  eye 
could  reach,  some  cooled,  some  half-cooled,  and  some  still  in  fusion."  On  the 
ascent  they  passed  fields  of  scoria,  and  regions  that  were  at  times  steaming  and 
hot,  evincing  igneous  action  beneath. 

"  Soon  we  came  to  an  opening  of  twenty  yards  long  and  ten  wide,  through 
which  we  looked,  and  at  the  depth  of  fifty  feet,  we  saw  a  vast  tunnel  or  subterra- 
nean canal,  lined  with  smooth,  vitrified  matter,  forming  the  channel  of  a  river  of 
fire,  which  swept  down  the  steep  side  of  the  mountain  with  amazing  velocity.  As 
we  passed  up  the  mountain  we  found  several  similar  openings  into  this  canal,  into 
which  we  cast  large  stones ;  these,  instead  of  sinking  into  the  viscid  mass,  were 
borne  instantly  out  of  sight.  Mounds,  ridges  and  cones  were  thrown  up  along  the 
line  of  the  stream,  from  the  latter  of  which  steam,  gases  and  hot  stones  were 
ejected.  At  three  o'clock  we  reached  the  verge  of  the  great  crater  where  the  erup- 
28 


218  APPENDIX. 

tion  first  took  place,  near  the  highest  point  of  the  mountain.     Here  we  found  two* 
immense  craters,  close  to  each  other,  of  vast  depth  and  in  terrific  action." 

VI.— THE  ERUPTION  OF  1852. 

This  occurred  in  February,  1852,  and  broke  out  on  the  north  side  of  Mauna 
Loa,  not  a  great  distance  from  that  of  1855.  An  account  of  it,  written  by  Mr. 
J.  Fuller,  and  dated  May  12th,  we  find  in  the  "  Friend  "  for  May,  1852,  and 
extract  a  few  paragraphs  describing  the  scene  : 

''  During  the  first  night,  at  the  distance  of  forty  miles,  we  heard  the  rumbling 
of  the  volcano,  like  the  roar  of  the  heavy  surf  breaking  upon  the  shore,  and  saw 
the  sky  brilliantly  illuminated  above  the  crater  and  the  flowing  lava.  An  immense 
column  of  vapor  and  smoke  arose  from  the  crater  and  formed  a  magnificent  arc, 
reflecting  the  red  and  purple  light  of  the  fiery  masses  below.  Animated  by  sights 
and  sounds  so  grand,  we  quickened  our  pace  in  order  to  gain  a  nearer  view  of  the 
scene,  believing  that  in  this  case  distance  did  not  lend  enchantment  to  the  view. 

"  On  the  second  day,  towards  night,  we  came  to  a  hut  built  by  the  party  of  the 
previous  week.  Being  wet  with  the  rain,  we  concluded  to  spend  the  night  here  : 
we  enlarged  the  house,  built  a  fire  in  one  part  of  it,  put  on  dry  clothes,  wrapped 
ourselves  in  our  blankets,  and  passed  a  comfortable  night.  The  morning  was  fine. 
We  soon  caught  sight  of  the  lava  jets  as  they  shot  up  above  the  distant  mountain 
ridges,  and  passing  the  whitened  bones  of  a  mule  lost  by  the  King's  party  while 
crossing  the  mountains  two  or  three  years  ago,  snatching  here  and  there  a  bunch 
of  delicious  ohelos,  which  grew  by  the  path,  we  came,  at  about  10  A.  M.  of  the 
third  day,  to  the  last  ridge  that  separated  us  from  the  region  of  the  eruption — as- 
cended to  the  top  of  this,  the  whole  scene,  wild,  terrific,  grand,  magnificent,  burst 
upon  our  senses  ! 

"  It  is  impossible  to  give  you  a  complete  description  of  what  we  saw  and  heard, 
or  to  draw  a  picture  which  will  produce  the  same  impression  on  your  mind  that  the 
original  did  upon  mine.  Language,  on  such  an  occasion,  is  powerless,  eloquence 
is  dumb,  and  silence  is  the  expression  most  congenial  to  the  sentiments  of  the  soul ; 
yet  I  will  try  to  give  you  some  facts  and  hints  which  will  assist  your  imagination 
in  its  conceptions  of  the  wildly  interesting  scenes  we  witnessed. 

"Imagine  yourself,  then,  just  ascended  to  the  top  of  the  above  mentioned  emi- 
nence. Before  you,  at  a  distance  of  two  miles,  arises  the  new  formed  crater  in  the 
midst  of  fields  of  black,  smoking  lava,  while  from  its  centre  there  jets  a  column  of 
red-hot  lava  to  an  immense  height,  threatening  instant  annihilation  to  any  presump- 
tuous mortal  who  should  come  within  reach  of  its  scathing  influence.  The  crater 
may  be  a  thousand  feet  in  diameter  and  from  one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  high.  The  column  of  liquid  lava  which  is  constantly  sustained  in  the  air,  is 
from  two  hundred  to  five  hundred  feet  high,  and  perhaps  the  highest  jets  may  reach 
as  high  as  seven  hundred  feet !  There  is  a  constant  and  rapid  succession  of  jets 
one  within  another,  and  the  masses  falling  outside  and  cooling  as  they  fall,  form  a 
sort  of  dark  veil,  through  which  the  new  jets,  darting  up  with  every  degree  of  force 
and  every  variety  of  form,  render  this  grand  fire-fountain  one  of  the  most  magnifi- 
cent objects  that  human  imagination  can  conceive  of.  From  the  top  of  the  lava 
jets  the  current  of  heated  air  carries  up  a  large  mass  of  scoria  and  pumice,  which 
falls  again  in  constant  showers  for  some  miles  around  the  crater." 

VII.— THE  ERUPTION  OF  1855. 

From  an  account  published  July  24th,  1855,  in  the  "  Pacific  Commercial 
Advertiser,"  a  weekly  journal  of  Honolulu,  we  copy  the  following,  respecting  the 
origin  of  this  remarkable  eruption  : 

•«'  On  the  evening  of  the  llth  of  August,  about  10  o'clock,  a  small  light,  appa- 
rently of  burning  brushwood  or  grass,  was  seen  near  the  top  of  Mauna  Loa,  which 


APPENDIX.  219 

rapidly  increased  until  the  whole  heaven  reflected  its  brightness,  and  turned  the 
night  into  day.  So  bright  was  it  towards  morning,  that  fine  newspaper  print  could 
easily  be  read  by  the  light.  It  was  certain  that  some  unusual  eruption  had  begun. 
This  light  continued,  varying  in  brightness,  for  weeks ;  sometimes  a  dense  smoky 
atmosphere  obscured  it  wholly,  but  when  clear,  the  sight  as  seen  by  vessels  at  sea 
is  represented  to  have  been  grand  beyond  description.  The  seat  of  this  eruption, 
which  is  in  the  old  traditional  crater  of  Mokuaweoweo,  is  on  the  summit  of  Mauna 
Loa,  some  14,000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  in  a  region  rarely  visited  by  man." 

Mr.  Coan  visited  the  source  of  this  stream,  and  the  following  is  from  his  report 
of  the  trip : 

"  Taking  the  channel  of  a  stream  which  enters  Hilo  Bay  as  our  path,  we  ad- 
vanced with  much  toil  through  the  dense  jungle  along  its  banks,  and  rested  at  night 
at  the  roots  of  an  ancient  tree — having  made  about  twelve  miles.  The  next  day 
we  made  about  twelve  miles  more,  for  the  most  part  in  the  rocky  bed  of  the  stream, 
the  water  being  low.  Volcanic  smoke  filled  the  forest,  and  charred  leaves  came 
floating  on  the  breeze  and  falling  into  the  wild  channel  we  were  threading.  At 
night,  when  the  shades  gathered  over  these  deep  solitudes,  unbroken  save  by  the 
bellowing  of  the  mountain  bull,  the  barking  of  the  wild  dog,  the  grunt  of  the  forest 
boar,  the  wing  and  the  note  of  the  restless  bird,  the  chirping  of  the  insect,  the  fall- 
ing of  a  time-worn  tree,  the  gurgling  of  the  rill,  and  the  wild  roar  of  the  cataract, 
we  made  our  little  beds  of  ferns  under  the  trunk  of  a  prostrate  tree,  and  here,  for 
the  first  time,  we  found  that  the  molten  stream  had  passed  us  in  the  jungle  on  the 
left,  and  was  now  many  miles  below  us  on  its  way  to  Hilo.  But  we  would  not 
retreat,  and  as  the  jungle  was  nearly  impenetrable  in  the  direction  of  the  stream, 
we  pursued  our  upward  way  in  the  bed  of  the  river  until  half-past  one  P.  M.  on 
the  third  day,  when  we  found  ourselves  out  of  the  forest,  and  on  the  high  plateau 
at  the  base  of  the  mountain.  I  cannot  stop  to  describe  the  beautiful,  the  romantic, 
the  wild,  the  wonderful,  in  the  banks,  the  narrows,  the  widenings,  the  rocks,  the 
rapids,  the  cascades,  the  basins,  the  caves  and  natural  bridges  of  this  solitary 
stream.  Nor  can  I  speak  of  the  velvet  mosses,  the  modest  creepers,  the  rich  fes- 
toons, the  sweet  wild  flowers,  the  gigantic  ferns,  the  ancient  forests,  and  all  the 
tropical  glories  which  are  mirrored  in  its  limpid  waters.  We  needed  an  artist  and 
a  naturalist  to  fix  the  glowing  panorama,  to  paint  the  flora  and  catch  the  fauna  of 
these  romantic  solitudes. 

"  When  we  emerged  from  the  upper  skirts  of  the  woods,  a  dense  fog  obstructed 
our  view  of  all  distant  objects,  so  that  we  could  not  see  the  summit-fires  nor  trace 
the  molten  stream  down  the  slope  of  the  mountain.  We  encamped  early  in  a  vast 
cave ;  but  during  the  night  the  stars  came  out,  and  the  volcanic  fires  played  bril- 
liantly from  their  high  source  down  the  mountain  sides,  over  the  scorified  plains, 
and  far  down  in  the  forest  over  Hilo. 

"  Early  in  the  morning  (Friday,  the  5th,)  we  left  our  cavern,  and  at  7J  A.  M. 
were  on  that  black  and  smoldering  stream,  for  which  we  had  been  searching  for 
more  than  three  days.  Almost  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  these  regions  had 
been  flooded  with  seas  of  fusion — now,  for  the  most  part,  hardened,  but  smoking 
and  crackling  with  heat  and  escaping  gases. 

"  We  passed  several  miles  up  the  left  verge  of  the  stream,  and  finding  a  narrow, 
well-solidified  place,  we  crossed  over  to  the  right  verge — our  passage  occupying  an 
hour  and  a  quarter.  We  now  ascended  rapidly  along  the  right  bank  of  the  stream, 
sometimes  upon  it  and  again  skirting  it,  according  to  the  facility  for  traveling  or 
the  directness  of  its  course.  The  stream  is  very  tortuous,  making  ample  detours 
and  sudden  zigzags,  so  that  we  saved  much  by  cutting  off  bends  or  following  the 
bases  of  the  triangles  described  in  its  course. 

"  All  this  day  we  came  to  no  open  fire.  The  first  overflowing  had  stiffened 
and  solidified  in  contact  with  the  atmosphere,  forming  a  broad  open  pall.  Under 
this  self-made  counterpane  the  continuous  stream  had  formed  a  vast  duct ;  and  in 
this  subterranean  pyroduct  it  now  flows  like  oil,  at  the  depth  of  from  twenty  to  one 
hundred  feet,  unexposed  to  the  stiffening  action  of  the  air. 


220  APPENDIX. 

"  At  night  we  slept  on  the  higher  regions  of  the  mountains,  beyond  the  line  of 
vegetation,  with  the  slag  for  our  pillow,  the  heavens  for  our  canopy,  the  stars  for 
our  watch-fires,  and  Israel's  Shepherd  for  our  guardian. 

"  We  were  astir  early  on  Saturday  morning,  climbing  over  indescribable  hills, 
cones,  ridges,  and  masses  of  hot  and  smoking  debris  and  scoria,  scattered  wild  and 
wide  over  those  Plutonic  regions.  We  soon  came  to  a  line  of  jagged  cones  with 
open  orifices  of  from  twenty  to  one  hundred  feet  in  diameter,  standing  over  the 
molten  river  and  furnishing  vents  for  its  steam  and  gases.  We  approached  the 
vents  with  awe,  and,  looking  down  their  fiery  throats,  we  heard  the  infernal  surg- 
ings  and  saw  the  mad  rushings  of  the  great  molten  stream,  fused  to  a  white  heat. 
The  angle  of  descent  was  from  3  °  to  25  °  ,  and  we  judged  the  velocity  to  be  forty 
miles  an  hour  I 

"  The  maddening  stream  seemed  to  be  hurrying  on,  as  if  on  swift  commission 
from  the  Eternal  to  execute  a  work  of  wrath  and  desolation  in  the  realms  below. 
Upward  and  onward  we  went— climbing  ridge  after  ridge,  parched  with  thirst, 
panting  in  a  rare  atmosphere,  blinded  by  smoke,  almost  scathed  by  heat  and  exco- 
riated by  sulphurous  gases. 

"  All  the  rest  of  the  way  we  saw  frequent  openings  into  the  fiery  canal,  upon 
whose  arched  ceiling  we  walked  for  miles,  with  the  fearful  stream  rushing  madly 
beneath  our  feet.  At  one  P.  M.  we  found  ourselves  at  the  terminal  crater  and 
standing  on  its  craggy  and  smoking  crest. 

"  This  was  the  high  fountain  of  eruption — the  great  chimney  which  goes  down 
immeasurable  depths  into  those  fearful  realms  where  man's  eye  never  penetrated, 
and  where  he  cannot  look  and  live.  For  nearly  five  days  we  had  struggled  to  gain 
this  point;  and  now  we  were  here — specks,  atoms  in  creation — obscured  by  smoke, 
startled  by  infernal  hissings,  amid  these  wild  wonders,  these  awful  displays  of 
power  which  had  scattered  such  a  tempest  of  fiery  hail  and  raised  such  a  raging 
sea  of  molten  rocks  on  these  everlasting  hills. 

"  The  grandeur,  the  sublimity,  the  terror  of  the  scene  were  unutterable.  A 
vast  chasm  had  opened  horizontally  on  the  top  of  the  mountain,  and  along  this 
yawning  fissure  stood  a  series  of  elongated,  jagged  arid  burning  cones,  about  one 
hundred  feet  high,  rent  through  their  larger  diameter,  and  throwing  up  dense  col- 
umns of  blue  and  white  smoke,  which,  covering  the  mountain's  summit,  rolled  in 
fleecy  masses  down  its  sides  and  spread  out  like  the  wings  of  chaos  over  unmeas- 
ured regions.  Still  no  fire  could  be  seen  in  this  fountain-crater.  We  could  feel  it 
everywhere,  and  we  could  see  and  hear  its  escaping  gasses,  but  the  throats  of  the 
cones  were  clogged  with  cinders,  pumice  and  ashes,  with  cracks,  crevices,  &c.,  for 
the  escaping  smoke.  The  fusion  had  long  since  found  vent  in  a  lateral,  subterra- 
nean duct,  several  hundred  feet  below  the  rim  of  the  crater,  and  in  this  covered 
way  it  flows  off'  until  it  makes  its  appearance,  as  described,  some  two  miles  down 
the  side  of  the  mountain." 

This  eruption,  which,  in  the  quantity  of  lava  thrown  out,  has  probably  never 
been  surpassed  during  the  residence  of  foreigners  on  these  islands,  continued  for 
about  thirteen  months,  and  stopped  when  within  six  or  seven  miles  of  Hilo.  The 
stream  was  more  than  sixty  miles  long,  and  the  area  covered  by  the  eruption  prob- 
ably exceeded  three  hundred  square  miles,  or  about  one-thirteenth  of  the  area  of 
the  Island  of  Hawaii.  It  finally  ceased  and  became  quiet  during  September  or 
October,  1S56. 

MIL— THE  ERUPTION  OF  JANUARY,  1859. 

The  commencement  of  this  great  eruption  is  described  by  Rev.  Mr.  Lyons,  ot 
Waimea,  Hawaii,  in  a  letter  to  us,  dated  February  4th.  Mr.  Lyons'  dwelling  was 
in  full  view  of  the  crater  from  its  commencement,  and,  seated  on  his  verandah,  so 
bright  was  the  light  of  the  eruption,  that  he  could  read  a  newspaper  without  diffi- 
culty, and  during  its  height  candles  were  unnecessary  in  the  evenings.  This  will 
the  reader  some  idea  of  the  splendor  of  the  scene.  Mr.  Lyons  says  : 


APPENDIX.  221 

**  Had  I  the  ability,  I  should  like  to  give  a  description  of  the  present  volcanic 
eruption ;  but  I  am  fearful  of  a  failure,  should  the  attempt  be  made.  When  one 
has  seen  the  real  thing  itself,  there  is  no  room  for  the  play  of  the  imagination  or 
poetry.  You  may  exhaust  language  of  its  most  impressive  and  descriptive  terms, 
and  yet  fail  to  reach  the  reality.  I  shall  attempt  to  give  no  more  than  a  few  facts. 

"  On  Sabbath,  January  23d,  volcanic  smoke  was  seen  gathering  on  Mauna  Loa. 
In  the  evening  the  mountain  presented  a  grand  yet  fearful  spectacle.  Two  streams 
of  fire  were  issuing  from  two  different  sources,  and  flowing,  apparently,  in  two  dif- 
ferent directions.  The  whole  region,  earth  and  heaven,  were  lighted  up,  and  even 
the  interior  of  our  houses  received  the  lurid  volcanic  light  direct  from  its  source. 
In  the  morning  of  the  second  day  we  could  discern  where  the  eruptions  were.  One 
appeared  to  be  very  near  the  top  of  the  mountain,  but  its  stream  and  smoke  soon 
disappeared.  The  other  was  on  the  north  side,  further  below  the  top,  and  was 
sending  out  its  fires  in  a  north-westerly  direction.  On  the  second  and  third  nights 
the  dense  smoke  prevented  us  from  having  a  fair  view  of  Pele's  doings ;  but  on 
the  four  following  nights  we  had  a  view — and  such  a  scene  !  It  seemed  as  though 
the  eye  could  never  weary  in  gazing  at  it.  The  burning  crater  seemed  to  be  con- 
stantly enlarging  and  throwing  up  its  volumes  of  liquid  fire  above  the  mouth  of 
the  crater — I  will  not  venture  to  say  how  high — and  the  fiery  stream  rolled  onward 
and  onward,  still  adding  grandeur  and  terror  as  it  proceeded,  till  on  the  morning 
of  the  31st,  about  sunrise,  the  stream  was  compelled,  though  reluctantly,  to  stop, 
by  meeting  the  waters  of  the  ocean.  Even  then  its  resistless  and  opposing  energy 
carried  it  on  some  distance  into  the  sea." 

Immediately  after  the  fact  of  a  new  volcanic  eruption  was  known  in  Honolulu, 
the  writer  of  this  appendix  took  passage  in  the  first  packet  for  the  scene,  and  from 
the  account  of  his  visit,  which  appeared  in  the  "  Advertiser"  of  the  17th  of  Feb- 
ruary, then  published  and  edited  by  him,  the  following  is  taken  : 

"  Our  camping  ground  is  located  on  the  elevated  table-land  lying  between  the 
three  great  mountains  of  Hualalai,  Mauna  Kea  and  Mauna  Loa,  sixteen  miles 
from  Kailua,  and  some  ten  miles  in  an  air  line  from  the  crater,  which  lies  over 
against  us  on  the  side  of  Mauna  Loa,  distinctly  in  view.  This  plain  is  about  5000 
feet  above  the  sea,  and  is  covered  with  small  shrubs  and  trees,  growing  from  ten 
to  twenty  feet  high.  In  some  places  it  is  level  and  covered  with  a  coarse  black 
sand,  similar  to  that  found  on  the  sides  of  Punchbowl,  only  much  coarser,  while 
the  shrubs  are  so  sparsely  scattered  as  to  allow  a  horse  to  travel  across  it  on  a  full 
gallop ;  in  others  it  consists  of  a  dense  jungle  with  numerous  pits  or  caves,  con- 
cealed by  overgrowing  shrubs.  This  part  of  the  plain  is  almost  impenetrable.  In 
still  other  localities  it  is  covered  with  coarse  lava  stones  or  "  clinkers,"  over  which 
traveling  is  next  to  impossible.  The  nights  are  extremely  cold,  frost  covering  the 
ground  every  morning.  The  days  are,  however,  warm  and  pleasant,  and  the  air, 
both  night  and  day,  is  cool  and  invigorating. 

"  During  the  day-time  the  light  of  the  crater  and  the  lava  streams  is  hardly 
perceptible.  The  night  is  the  best  time  for  observation.  Soon  after  the  sun  had 
set,  the  molten  streams  began  to  show  their  courses,  while  the  spouting  of  the  lava 
from  the  crater  became  more  and  more  distinct.  The  reflection  of  the  numerous 
fiery  streams  rolling  rapidly  down  the  side  of  the  mountain  and  across  the  plain, 
lit  up  the  overhanging  clouds,  making  it  as  bright  as  moonlight  for  many  miles 
around.  As  night  advanced,  and  every  little  stream  and  light  became  brilliant, 
the  scene  was  grand. 

"  This  new  crater  is  located  on  the  northern  slope  of  Mauna  Loa,  at  an  eleva- 
tion of,  say  8500  feet  above  the  sea.  It  is  some  ten  or  more  miles  westward  and 
about  4000  feet  lower  than  the  last  eruption  of  1855,  known  as  that  of  Mokuaweo- 
weo.  The  course  of  the  stream,  from  its  course  to  the  sea,  we  judge  to  be  nearly 
northwest  by  north.  The  crater  bears  due  east  from  Kailua  by  the  compass,  and 
is  about  twenty-four  miles  from  that  harbor  in  a  straight  line.  Its  latitude,  as  near 
as  we  are  able  to  determine  without  instruments,  is  19  °  37',  long.  155  °  49'.  By 


222  APPENDIX. 

referring  to  a  map  or  chart,  its  position  on  the  island  can  readily  be  noted.  Our 
figures  are  only  estimates,  and  accurate  observations  may  prove  that  we  are  in  error 
in  some  of  them. 

"  The  actual  size  and  form  of  the  crater  can  only  be  determined  by  visiting  its 
immediate  vicinity,  which  we  were  not  prepared  to  do.  From  the  distance  at 
which  we  observed  it,  about  ten  miles,  and  from  various  points  of  observation,  it 
appeared  to  be  circular,  its  width  being  about  equal  to  its  breadth,  and  over  two 
hundred  feet  across  the  mouth.  Its  rim  is  surrounded  or  made  up  of  cones  formed 
from  the  stones  and  scoria  thrown  out,  these  cones  constantly  varying  in  extent, 
now  growing  in  size  and  again  all  tumbling  down.  The  lava  does  not  simply  run 
out  from  the  side  of  the  crater  like  water  from  the  side  of  a  bowl,  but  is  thrown  up 
in  continuous  columns,  very  much  like  the  geyser  springs,  as  represented  in  school 
geographies. 

"  A  dense,  heavy  column  of  smoke  continually  poured  out  from  the  crater,  but 
always  on  the  north  side,  and  took  a  north-easterly  direction,  rising  in  one  contin- 
uous column  far  above  the  mountain,  to  a  height  of  perhaps  10,000  feet  above  the 
crater.  This  smoke  hovers  over  that  island,  and  indeed  all  the  group,  and  must 
at  times,  when  the  trade-wind  lulls,  obstruct  the  view.  During  our  stay,  however, 
it  passed  off  from  the  mountain,  leaving  the  lower  atmosphere  quite  clear.  We 
watched  closely  to  observe  whether  any  steam  could  be  seen  issuing,  either  from 
the  crater  or  from  any  of  the  streams  of  lava,  but  could  not  see  anything  that  could 
be  called  steam  or  vapor,  unless  occasionally  very  slight  indications  along  some  of 
the  lava  streams.  Considerable  smoke  rose  along  the  streams,  as  the  molten  lava 
came  in  contact  with  trees  and  vegetable  products,  but  the  mass  of  smoke  came 
from  the  crater  itself.  Steam  was  noticed  in  various  places  on  the  plain,  issuing 
from  the  rocks,  and  near  one  of  the  camps  the  heat  was  so  intense  that  a  teakettle 
could  be  boiled  over  it.  But  this  steam  was  undoubtedly  caused  by  the  heat  of 
the  flowing  lava  coming  in  contact  with  pools  of  water  in  caves  or  pits. 

"  At  times  the  spouting  appeared  to  be  feeble,  rising  but  little  above  the  rim  of 
the  crater,  but  generally,  as  if  eager  to  escape  from  the  pent-up  bowels  of  the  earth, 
it  rose  to  a  height  nearly  equal  to  the  base  of  the  crater.  But  the  columns  and 
masses  of  lava  thrown  out  were  ever  varying  in  form  and  height.  Sometimes, 
when  very  active,  a  spire  or  cone  of  lava  would  shoot  up  like  a  rocket,  or  in  the 
form  of  a  huge  pyramid,  to  a  height  nearly  double  the  base  of  the  crater.  The 
mouth  of  the  crater  being  about  250  feet  across,  the  perpendicular  column  must  be 
500  feet  in  height !  Then,  by  watching  it  with  a  spyglass,  the  columns  could  be 
seen  to  diverge  and  fall  in  all  manner  of  shapes,  like  a  beautiful  fountain. 

"  This  part  of  the  scene  was  one  of  true  grandeur — no  words  can  convey  a  full 
idea  of  it  to  the  reader.  The  molten  fiery-redness,  ever  varying,  ever  changing 
its  form,  from  the  simple  gurgling  of  a  spring  to  the  hugest  fountain  conceivable — 
like  a  vast  natural  kaleidoscope — is  a  picture  too  grand  to  be  described,  but  when 
seen  will  remain  painted  on  the  observer's  memory  till  death.  Large  boulders  of 
red-hot  lava  stone,  weighing  hundreds  of  tons,  thrown  up  with  inconceivable  power 
high  into  the  air,  could  be  occasionally  seen  falling  outside  or  on  the  rim  of  the 
crater,  tumbling  down  the  cones  and  rolling  over  the  precipice,  remaining  brilliant 
for  a  few  moments,  then  becoming  cold  and  black,  were  lost  among  the  surround- 
ing lava.  So  awfully  grand,  so  beautiful,  was  this  ever- varying  scene,  that  the 
spectator  cannot  help  watching  it  with  intense  delight  and  increasing  excitement 
for  hours  together;  the  only  drawback  being  the  severe  cold  of  the  night,  against 
which  travelers  should  be  provided. 

"  On  leaving  the  crater,  the  lava  stream  does  not  appear  for  some  distance,  say 
an  eighth  of  a  mile,  as  it  has  cut  its  way  through  a  deep  ravine  or  gulch,  eighty  or 
or  one  hundred  feet  deep,  which  hides  it  from  view.  The  first,  then,  that  we  see 
of  the  lava,  after  being  thrown  up  in  the  crater,  it  is  branching  out  into  streams 
some  distance  below  the  fountain-head.  Instead  of  running  in  one  large  stream,  it 
divides  into  a  great  number — perhaps  as  many  as  fifty — spreading  out  over  a  tract 


APPENDIX.  223 

of  five  or  six  miles  in  width.  For  the  first  six  miles  from  the  crater  the  descent 
is  rapid,  and  the  flow  of  the  lava  varies  from  four  to  five  miles  an  hour ;  but  after 
it  reaches  the  plain,  where  it  is  level,  it  moves  slower.  Here  the  streams  are  not 
so  numerous  as  higher  up,  there  being  a  principal  one,  which  varies  and  is  very 
tortuous,  from  an  eighth  to  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  width,  with  frequent  branches 
running  off  from  it. 

"  Some  of  the  finest  scenes  of  the  flow  were  the  cascades  or  falls  formed  as  it 
flowed  down  the  steep  declivities  below  the  crater,  and  before  it  reached  the  plain. 
There  were  several  of  them,  and  they  appeared  to  be  changing  and  new  ones 
formed  in  different  localities  as  new  streams  were  made.  One,  however,  which 
appeared  without  change  for  two  days,  was  eighty  or  one  hundred  feet  in  height. 
First  there  was  a  fall,  then  below  were  cascades  or  rapids.  To  watch  this  during 
the  night,  when  the  bright  cherry-red  stream  of  lava  was  tumbling  over  it  at  the 
rate  of  ten  miles  an  hour,  like  water,  was  a  scene  not  often  witnessed  and  never 
to  be  forgotten.  In  fact,  the  lava  near  its  source  had  all  the  characteristics  of  a 
river  of  water  flowing  rapidly  along,  and  gurgling  with  cascades,  rapids  and  falls. 

"  On  reaching  the  plain,  where  it  is  more  level,  the  lava  stream  of  course  moves 
along  more  slowly  and  in  one  general  stream,  less  divided  than  above.  The  stream 
which  had  run  into  the  sea  had  apparently  ceased  flowing  and  was  cooled  over,  so 
that  we  crossed  and  recrossed  it  in  many  places,  and  through  the  fissures  the  molten 
lava  could  be  seen,  with  its  red-hot  glow  and  intense  heat,  issuing  out  from  them. 
In  many  places  the  surface  was  so  hot  that  the  soles  of  our  shoes  would  have  been 
burned  had  we  not  kept  in  rapid  motion.  The  length  of  the  lava  stream  from  the 
crater  to  where  it  enters  the  sea  at  Wainanalii,  is  estimated  to  be  forty  miles. 

"  On  the  afternoon  of  our  arrival  at  the  camping-ground,  a  new  stream  started 
some  few  miles  below  the  crater,  which  had  evidently  been  dammed  up  by  some 
obstruction,  and  came  rushing  down  with  tremendous  noise  and  fury  through  the 
thick  jungle  which  lay  in  its  track,  burning  the  trees,  and  sending  up  a  thick  smoke 
almost  as  dense  as  that  from  the  crater.  This  stream,  from  the  time  it  broke  away 
from  the  embankment,  moved  along  several  miles  an  hour  till  it  reached  the  vicinity 
of  our  camp,  when  its  progress  was  checked,  and  it  moved  not  more  than  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  an  hour.  But  it  formed  a  magnificent  sight.  Here  was  a  stream  of  lava 
rolling  over  the  plain,  twenty  to  twenty-five  feet  in  height,  and  an  eighth  of  a  mile 
in  width,  though  its  width  varied  a  great  deal,  sometimes  broader,  sometimes  nar- 
rower. It  was,  in  fact,  a  mass  or  pile  of  red-hot  stones,  resembling  a  heap  of  coals 
on  fire,  borne  along  by  the  more  liquid  lava  underneath.  As  it  moved  slowly  along, 
large  red  boulders  would  roll  down  the  sides,  breaking  into  a  thousand  small  stones, 
crushing  and  burning  the  trees,  melting  the  rocks,  and  destroying  everything  which 
lay  in  the  track.  It  is  impossible  to  give  a  true  conception  of  the  immense  force 
of  this  lava  stream,  bearing  along  as  it  does  an  almost  inconceivable  mass.  It 
reminds  one  most  vividly  of  the  breaking  up  of  the  ice  in  a  large  river,  only  the 
imagination  must  stretch  the  comparison  and  suppose  the  ice  piled  up  twenty-five 
feet,  and  thus  borne  along  by  the  current  beneath,  the  whole  width  of  the  river 
moving  at  the  same  time,  crashing  and  breaking  and  piling  up  cones  and  irregular 
masses  on  top.  But  even  this  comparison  is  far  below  the  reality — to  be  conceived 
it  must  be  seen. 

"  We  visited  the  lava  stream  four  or  five  times,  both  in  the  day  and  night, 
though  in  the  day-time  it  appeared  robbed  of  its  peculiar  beauty.  Owing  to  the 
intense  heat,  it  could  not  be  approached  comfortably  within  a  hundred  feet,  yet 
some  of  our  party,  anxious  to  outdo  the  rest,  ventured  to  the  stream  itself,  and  with 
long  sticks  raked  out  amall  specimens  of  red-hot  lava  stones,  which  were  brought 
away  as  mementoes.  This  stream  is  made  up  for  the  most  part  of  the  dross  of  the 
lava,  called  aa,  which  as  it  becomes  cooled  crumbles  into  stones  and  rocks,  and  is 
thus  piled  up  to  a  height  of  twenty  or  twenty-five  feet,  and  carried  along  by  the 
more  liquid  lava  beneath  it.  This  clinker  lava,  when  moving  along,  is  of  a  dark- 
reddish  color,  while  the  purer  lava,  called  pahothoe,  is  of  a  more  brilliant  cherry 


224  APPENDIX. 

hue,  and  when  it  cools  becomes  very  glossy,  porous  and  lighter  than  aa.     It  also 
forms  the  best  specimens  for  cabinets. 

"  About  three  o'clock,  A.  M.,  we  visited  the  new  stream  which  had  been  rush- 
ing down  during  the  night  and  was  glowing  with  intense  heat,  it  moved  slowly 
over  the  plain  within  fifteen  minutes'  walk  of  our  camp.  On  reaching  it,  we  stood 
sheltered  by  a  small  tree  a  hundred  feet  distant,  and  as  it  advanced  were  forced  to 
retreat  before  it.  In  fifteen  minutes  the  tree  was  reached,  burned,  and  the  spot 
where  we  were  covered  by  the  irresistible  stream.  Once,  while  standing  on  a 
rock  with  several  others,  perhaps  two  hundred  feet  from  the  stream,  a  loud  ringing 
noise  was  heard  as  if  the  rock  had  been  struck  by  an  immense  sledge-hammer. 
We  started,  not  knowing  but  Pele  herself  was  under  and  after  us,  but  soon  found 
our  alarm  groundless,  though  the  noise  was  probably  caused  by  the  liquid  lava  run- 
ning under  ground  and  suddenly  filling  up  a  cave  beneath.  A  little  while  after,  a 
singular  scene  presented  itself — the  appearance  of  a  man  sitting  on  a  rock  and 
riding  along  on  the  top  of  the  fiery  lava  stream.  So  deceptive  was  this  illusion, 
that  several  of  the  party,  when  it  was  first  observed,  looked  around  to  see  if  one  of 
their  number  had  not  by  accident  got  on  to  the  stream.  The  life-like  image  moved 
slowly  along,  till  suddenly  its  head  tumbled  off,  and  the  whole  soon  disappeared. 

"  The  tract  over  which  the  lava  is  now  flowing  is  a  barren  waste,  uninhabited 
except  by  wild  hogs.  Formerly  cattle  roamed  over  it,  but  they  have  been  driven 
to  the  side  of  Mauna  Kea,  which  furnishes  better  food.  We  are  not  aware  that 
any  valuable  land  has  been  overrun,  unless  it  be  near  the  village  of  Wainanalii." 

After  running  a  distance  of  about  forty  miles  from  its  source,  the  lava  stream 
entered  the  sea  at  a  small  fishing  village  called  Wainanalii,  south  of  the  port  of 
Kawaihae,  on  the  morning  of  January  31st.  The  eruption  having  commenced  on 
the  23d  of  January,  it  was  consequently  eight  days  in  running  over  that  distance. 
Of  this,  Rev.  Mr.  Lyons  writes  : 

"  The  poor  inhabitants  of  Wainanalii,  the  name  of  the  village  where  the  fire 
reached  the  ocean,  were  aroused  at  the  midnight  hour  by  the  hissing  and  roaring 
of  the  approaching  fire,  and  had  just  time  to  save  themselves.  Some  of  the  houses 
of  the  inland  portion  of  the  village  were  partly  surrounded  before  the  inmates  were 
aware  of  their  danger.  Wainanalii  is  near  the  northern  boundary  of  North  Kona, 
and  about  fourteen  miles  from  Kawaihae.  It  is  of  course  all  destroyed,  and  its 
pleasant  little  harbor  all  filled  up  with  lava.  The  volcanic  stream  was  one  mile 
wide,  or  more  in  some  places  and  much  less  in  others.  It  crossed  the  Kona  road, 
and  interrupted  the  mail  communication.  The  whole  distance  of  the  flow  from  the 
crater  to  the  sea  is  some  forty  miles." 

The  schooner  Kekauluohi  was  passing  this  village  at  the  time  the  stream 
reached  the  sea,  and  several  foreigners  on  board  have  described  the  scene  of  the 
lava  rushing  into  the  sea  as  one  of  terrific  grandeur.  Perhaps  we  cannot  give  a 
better  account  of  it  than  to  insert  the  description  given  of  the  meeting  of  the  lava 
stream  with  the  sea  in  the  eruption  of  1840  : 

"  When  the  torrent  of  fire  precipitated  itself  into  the  ocean,  the  scene  assumed 
a  character  of  terrific  and  indescribable  grandeur.  The  magnificence  of  destruction 
was  never  more  perceptibly  displayed  than  when  these  antagonistic  elements  met 
in  deadly  strife.  The  mightiest  of  earth's  magazines  of  fire  poured  forth  its  burn- 
ing billows  to  meet  the  mightiest  of  oceans.  For  two-score  miles  it  came  rolling, 
tumbling,  swelling  forward,  an  awful  agent  of  death.  Rocks  melted  like  wax  in  its 
path ;  forests  crackled  and  blazed  before  its  fervent  heat ;  the  very  hills  were  lifted 
from  their  primeval  beds  and  sank  beneath  its  tide,  or  were  borne  onward  by  its 
waves ;  the  works  of  man  were  to  it  but  as  a  scroll  in  the  flames  ;  Nature  shriveled 
and  trembled  before  the  irresistible  flow.  Imagine  Niagara's  stream,  above  the 
brink  of  the  falls,  with  its  dashing,  whirling,  madly  raging  waters  hurrying  on  to 
their  plunge,  instantaneously  converted  into  fire,  a  gory-hued  river  of  fused  min- 
erals ;  the  wrecks  of  creative  matter  blazing  and  disappearing  beneath  its  surface  ; 
volumes  of  hissing  steam  arising ;  smoke  curling  upwards  from  ten  thousand  vents, 


APPENDIX.  225 

which  give  utterance  to  as  many  deep-toned  mutterings,  and  sullen,  confined  and 
ominous  clamorings,  as  if  the  spirits  of  fallen  demons  were  struggling  against  their 
final  doom  ;  gases  detonating  and  shrieking  as  they  burst  from  their  hot  prison- 
house  ;  the  heavens  lurid  with  flame ;  the  atmosphere  dark,  turgid  and  oppressive  ; 
the  horizon  murky  with  vapors,  and  gleaming  with  the  reflected  contest ;  while 
cave  and  hollow,  as  the  hot  air  swept  along  their  heated  walls,  threw  back  the 
unearthly  sounds  in  a  myriad  of  prolonged  echoes.  Such  was  the  scene  as  the  fiery 
cataract,  leaping  a  precipice  of  fifty  feet,  poured  its  flood  upon  the  ocean.  The  old 
line  of  coast,  a  mass  of  compact  indurated  lava,  whitened,  cracked  and  fell.  The 
waters  recoiled  and  sent  forth  a  tempest  of  spray  ;  they  foamed  and  lashed  around 
and  over  the  melted  rock ;  they  boiled  with  the  heat,  and  the  roar  of  the  conflict- 
ing agencies  grew  fiercer  and  louder.  The  reports  of  the  exploding  gases  were 
distinctly  heard  twenty-five  miles  distant.  They  were  likened  to  discharges  of 
whole  broadsides  of  heavy  artillery.  Streaks  of  the  intensest  light  glanced  like 
lightning  in  all  directions  ;  the  outskirts  of  the  burning  lava  as  it  fell,  cooled  by 
the  shock,  was  shivered  into  millions  of  fragments,  and,  borne  aloft  by  strong 
breezes  blowing  towards  the  land,  were  scattered  in  scintillant  showers  far  into  the 
country.  For  three  successive  weeks  the  volcano  disgorged  an  uninterrupted  burn- 
ing tide,  with  scarcely  any  diminution,  into  the  ocean.  On  either  side,  for  twenty 
miles,  the  sea  became  heated,  and  with  such  rapidity  that  on  the  second  day  of  the 
junction  fishes  came  ashore  dead  in  great  numbers  at  Keau,  fifteen  miles  distant. 
Six  weeks  later,  at  the  base  of  the  hills,  the  water  continued  scalding  hot,  and  sent 
forth  steam  at  every  wash  of  the  waves." 

President  W.  Alexander,  of  Punahou  College,  subsequently  visited  the  eruption 
on  Mauna  Loa,  and  furnished  an  interesting  report,  which  is  given  in  full : 

"  At  a  time  when  all  information  relating  to  the  eruption  is  eagerly  received,  a 
brief  sketch  of  what  the  company  to  which  I  belonged  saw  and  did,  may  be  interest- 
ing to  your  readers,  particularly  as  we  reached  the  source  by  a  route  different  from 
that  taken  by  any  other  party,  excepting  perhaps  Mr.  Vaudry.  Our  party  sailed 
from  Honolulu  in  the  Kinoole,  on  Tuesday,  February  1st,  1859,  and  landed  at 
Kealakekua  on  Thursday  noon.  During  the  preceding  night  we  had  a  distant 
view  of  the  eruption,  like  a  star,  two-thirds  up  the  mountain,  with  streaks  of  light 
branching  out  from  below.  Friday  was  spent  in  preparations  for  the  jaunt,  and  on 
Saturday  morning  we  set  out  for  the  crater,  from  Kuapehu,  in  a  direction  nearly  east. 

"  As  we  began  to  emerge  from  the  woods  we  had  a  fine  view  of  the  jet,  playing 
at  a  distance  of  perhaps  twenty-five  miles,  to  a  height,  as  we  afterwards  estimated, 
of  three  hundred  feet.  It  was  of  a  deep-red  color,  in  form  and  movement  exactly 
like  a  fountain,  and  was  accompanied  by  immense  columns  of  steam.  It  was  soon 
concealed  from  our  view,  however,  by  the  flanks  of  Mauna  Loa.  About  twelve 
miles  from  the  coast  road  we  reached  a  watering-place  called  Waiio,  which  we 
found  nearly  dry. 

"  Here  we  were  obliged  to  send  back  our  horses  and  pack-oxen  and  proceed  on 
foot.  Our  guide  then  led  us  in  a  direction  about  E.S.E.  across  a  rugged  tract  of 
clinkers  to  a  cave,  about  eight  miles  from  Waiio,  where  we  encamped  for  the  night. 
This  cave  had  formed  part  of  the  channel  of  a  subterranean  stream,  which  left  a 
series  of  deep  caverns,  fissures  and  pits  to  mark  its  course. 

"  During  the  afternoon  the  party,  being  in  want  of  water,  pushed  on  six  or 
eight  miles  S.S.E.  to  a  well  known  watering-place  called  Puapuawai,  where  they 
encamped.  At  this  point  the  cold  was  so  intense  at  night,  that  a  crust  of  ice  half 
an  inch  thick  was  formed  in  our  calabashes,  and  the  berries  around  our  camp  were 
frozen  hard.  As  far  as  we  could  judge  by  the  horizon,  we  were  about  a  thousand 
feet  lower  than  the  summit  of  Hualalai,  and  accordingly  about  8000  feet  above  the 
sea.  On  account  of  the  failure  of  this  spring,  as  well  as  for  other  reasons,  it  was 
thought  expedient  to  divide  the  party  :  half  of  them,  headed  by  Pres.  Beckwith, 
returned  to  Kaawaloa,  and  went  out  to  the  lava  flow  by  Gov.  Adams'  road. 

"  The  advance  party  started  again  directly  for  the  crater  on  Wednesday  morn- 
29 


226  APPENDIX. 

ing,  consisting  of  twelve  white  men  and  thirty  kanakas,  with  a  week's  provisions. 
During  this  day's  march  the  rarity  of  the  atmosphere  affected  us  all  more  or  less, 
but  especially  our  natives,  who  seemed  unable  to  carry  their  usual  loads.  We 
were  slowly  ascending  nearly  all  day.  The  vegetation  became  more  and  more 
scanty,  till  it  almost  entirely  disappeared. 

"  About  noon  we  crossed  a  recent  flow,  perhaps  that  of  1847,  and  at  4  P.  MM 
(February  9th,)  after  a  march  of  about  twenty  miles  northeast,  we  suddenly  found 
the  two  active  craters,  and  the  lava  stream  in  its  whole  extent  immediately  below 
us.  We  encamped  a  mile  and  a  half  southwest  of  the  larger  cone,  on  an  eminence 
commanding  a  fine  view  of  the  whole  eruption.  Large  banks  of  snow  and  ice  were 
found  within  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  our  camp,  so  that  all  anxiety  on  the  score  of 
water  was  soon  dissipated. 

"  The  sight  which  we  enjoyed  that  night  will  not  be  forgotten  by  any  of  the 
party.  The  jet  had  ceased  to  play,  but  the  two  craters  were  blowing  off  enormous 
columns  of  steam  and  showers  of  red-hot  scoria  with  a  noise  like  that  of  heavy 
surf,  or  occasionally  like  discharges  of  artillery.  Half  a  mile  below  the  lower  crater 
appeared  a  cataract  of  fire,  continued  for  several  miles  in  a  winding  river  of  light, 
which  then  divided  into  a  net-work  of  branches,  enclosing  numerous  islands.  The 
branch  towards  Kawaihae  still  gave  a  dull-red  light  in  a  few  spots,  but  the  force  of 
the  stream  seemed  to  be  directed  west,  towards  Kona. 

•'  The  new  streams  seemed  to  be  running  a  race,  as  it  were,  in  that  direction, 
and  we  could  see  the  forest  blazing  before  them.  The  next  day  (19th)  was  rainy, 
and  the  fog  so  dense  that  we  could  not  travel.  We  moved  down  a  couple  of  miles 
and  encamped  on  the  fresh  lava  stream,  half  a  mile  south  of  the  principal  cone.  By 
the  heat  of  the  steam-cracks  we  boiled  our  coffee,  roasted  meat  and  potatoes,  and 
melted  the  snow,  which  our  natives  had  brought  down  in  sacks,  till  we  filled  all  our 
water  containers.  During  the  day  parties  explored  the  craters. 

"The  two  principal  cones  are  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  apart,  the  upper  one 
bearing  southeast  from  the  other.  They  are  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  high, 
and  are  composed  entirely  of  pumice  and  small  fragments  of  lava  which  were 
thrown  out  in  a  liquid  state.  The  upper  cone  was  a  closed  crater,  enclosing  two 
red-hot  vent  holes  or  furnaces,  several  feet  in  diameter,  from  which  it  was  emitting 
steam  and  sulphurous  gas,  and  now  and  then  showers  of  light  pumice.  The  suffo- 
cating gases  rendered  it  impossible  to  approach  it  except  on  the  windward  side. 
The  lower  crater,  from  which  the  great  jet  had  been  playing  two  days  before,  was 
somewhat  -larger,  and  a  great  gap  was  left  open  on  the  lower  side,  through  which 
a. torrent  of  lava  had  flowed  down  the  slope. 

"  We  found  a  third  crater,  above  the  two  we  have  mentioned,  which  was  still 
smoking,  and  in  fact  we  could  trace  a  line  of  fresh  lava  and  scoria  cones  two  or 
three  miles  farther  up  the  mountain.  The  larger  cones  were  in  the  centre  of  a  still 
smoking  stream,  a  mile  wide,  which  must  have  flowed  from  a  source  considerably 
higher  up. 

"  It  was  a  subject  of  regret  to  the  party  that  they  did  not  have  a  barometer  to 
•measure  the  elevation  of  the  source,  but,  taking  all  things  into  account,  we  think 
it -cannot  be  less  than  8000  feet,  and  is  probably  nearer  10,000  feet,  above  the  sea. 
The  elevation  of  the  'Heiau  of  Umi'  is  given  by  Wilkes  at  5000  feet,  and  we 
think  the  source  of  the  eruption  is  certainly  3000  or  4000  feet  higher. 

"We  slept  on  the  warm  lava  that  night,  and  early  next  morning  revisited  the 
lower  .crater,  and  followed  the  central  flow  for  half  a  mile,  passing  two  or  three 
smalLcones,  till  we  reached  the  present  outlet,  to  which  the  stream  has  evidently 
found  its  lway  from  the  crater  by  a  subterranean  channel.  It  was  in  appearance  a 
pool  of  blood,  a  few  rods  in  width,  boiling  up  like  a  spring,  and  spouting  up  thick, 
clotted  masses  to  the  height  of  ten  or  twenty  feet.  One  of  our  party  approached 
near  enough  to  run  his  pole  into  it.  On  the  lower  side  it  poured,  in  a  cataract  of 
molten  metal  at  a  white  heat,  down  a  descent  of  about  fifty  feet,  with  a  roar  like 
that  of  heavy  surf.  A  strong  south  wind  was  blowing,  which  enabled  us,  by  hold- 


APPENDIX.  227 

ing  our  hats  before  our  faces,  to  get  within  a  few  feet  of  the  brink.  The  lava 
appeared  almost  as  fluid  as  water,  and  ran  with  a  velocity  which  the  eye  could 
scarcely  follow.  The  solid  fragments  which  now  and  then  fell  in,  disappeared 
almost  instantly.  For  several  miles  the  fiery  river  was  a  continuous  series  of  rap- 
ids and  cataracts.  At  length  we  reluctantly  returned  to  our  camp,  a  distance  of 
two  or  three  miles  across  the  fresh  lava,  which  in  several  places  was  hot  enough  to 
burn  our  sandals. 

"  After  taking  our  breakfast,  and  starting  our  natives  over  the  old  pahoehoe 
along  the  south  bank  of  the  stream,  we  returned  to  the  great  cataract.  The  action 
had  greatly  increased  during  the  last  three  hours;  the  pool  had  become  a  fountain, 
playing  to  a  height  of  thirty  feet,  and  the  falling  pieces  were  fast  forming  a  crater 
around  it,  the  rim  of  which  was  already  ten  feet  high,  but  open  on  the  lower  side 
to  afford  an  outlet  for  the  torrent.  Two  smaller  jets  were  playing  above  it,  which 
will  probably  unite  with  it  to  form  one  crater.  The  upper  one  threw  up  light 
pieces  of  pumice  to  the  hight  of  sixty  feet,  and  was  forming  a  very  regular  cone. 

"  It  was  fortunately  a  clear  day  on  the  mountain,  and  a  strong  wind  was  blow- 
ing from  the  southwest,  so  that  we  traveled  for  three  or  four  hours  along  the  very 
brink  of  the  stream  without  inconvenience.  It  had  worn  for  itself  a  deep,  well- 
defined  channel,  so  that  there  was  no  danger  of  any  sudden  change  in  its  course. 
The  canal  in  which  it  ran  varied  from  twenty  to  fifty  feet  in  width,  and  was  ten  or 
fifteen  feet  deep.  But  the  stream  was  in  reality  much  wider  than  this,  for  the 
banks  on  either  side  were  undermined  to  considerable  extent.  Often  we  met  with 
openings  in  the  crust,  through  which  we  could  see  the  rushing  torrent  a  few  feet, 
or  even  inches,  below  our  feet. 

"  To  describe  the  scene  is  impossible.  No  epithets  in  the  English  language 
are  adequate  to  the  task.  For  the  first  time  we  saw  actual  waves  and  actual  spray 
of  liquid  lava.  As  its  surges  rolled  back  from  the  enclosing  walls  of  rock,  they 
curled  over  and  broke  like  combers  on  the  reef.  Its  forms,  however,  were  bolder 
and  more  picturesque  than  those  of  running  water,  on  account  of  its  being  a  heavier 
find  more  tenacious  fluid.  There  was,  besides,  an  endless  variety  in  its  forms. 
Now  we  passed  a  cascade,  then  a  whirlpool,  then  a  smooth  and  majestic  river,  then 
a  series  of  rapids,  tossing  their  waves  like  a  stormy  sea ;  now  rolling  into  lurid 
caverns,  the  roofs  of  which  were  hung  with  red-hot  stalactites,  and  then  under 
arches  which  it  had  thrown  over  itself  in  sportive  triumph.  The  safety  with  which 
it  could  be  approached,  was  matter  of  astonishment,  to  us  all. 

"  After  following  it  six  or  eight  miles  we  halted  for  dinner  on  an  island,  about 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  largest  fall,  and  then  proceeded  down  the  stream  till 
4  P.  M.  As  the  descent  became  more  gradual  the  torrent  changed  its  color,  first 
to  rose-color,  then  to  a  dark  blood-red  ;  its  surface  began  to  gather  a  greyish  scum, 
and  large  drifting  masses  became  frequent.  It  now  began  to  separate  into  numer- 
ous branches,  and  it  became  more  unsafe  to  follow  the  central  stream,  as  changes 
were  constantly  taking  place,  and  our  retreat  was  liable  to  be  cut  off  at  any  moment. 
We  therefore  kept  nearer  the  edge  of  the  flow,  and  at  length  encamped  on  an  island 
in  the  woods.  During  the  night  the  craters  were  very  active,  and  the  whole 
plain  seemed  to  be  on  fire  below  and  above  us. 

"  The  party  was  called  out  by  four  o'clock  the  next  morning,  and  went  up  a 
short  distance  to  observe  a  new  stream  which  was  pouring  down  through  the  woods 
to  our  camp.  It  was  a  shallow  flow  in  a  high  state  of  fusion,  and  was  forming 
smooth  pahoehoe.  Its  mode  of  advance  through  the  woods,  girdling  and  slowly 
consuming  the  trees,  the  surface  constantly  cooling  over  and  breaking  up  by  turns, 
was  exactly  the  same  as  that  observed  at  Hilo,  and  needs  no  description.  Here  we 
were  able  to  take  out  as  many  specimens  in  a  liquid  state  as  we  wished,  to  insert 
coins  into  them,  and  if  we  had  carried  moulds  with  us,  we  might  have  forced  the 
liquid  into  almost  any  required  shape.  We  spent  the  forenoon  in  following  the 
stream  to  the  plain,  partly  crossing  it  in  some  places  to  reach  the  scene  of  a  new 
overflow.  We  had  been  particularly  curious  to  see  how  clinkers  are  formed,  and 


228  APPENDIX. 

our  curiosity  was  now  gratified.  The  difference  between  pahoehoe  or  smooth  lava, 
and  aa  or  clinkers,  seems  to  be  due  more  to  a  difference  in  their  mode  of  cooling 
than  to  any  other  cause.  The  streams  which  form  the  pahoehoe  are  comparatively 
shallow,  in  a  state  of  complete  fusion,  and  cool  suddenly  in  a  mass.  The  aa 
streams,  on  the  other  hand,  are  deep,  sometimes  moving  along  in  a  mass  twenty 
feet  high,  with  solid  walls ;  they  are  less  fluid,  being  full  of  solid  points  or  centres 
of  cooling,  as  they  may  be  called,  and  advance  very  slowly ;  that  is,  in  cooling,  the 
aa  stream  grains  like  sugar.  At  a  distance  it  looks  like  an  immense  mass  of  half 
red-hot  cinders  and  slag  from  a  foundry,  rolling  along  over  and  over  itself,  impelled 
by  an  irresistible  power  from  behind  and  beneath.  That  power  is  the  liquid  stream, 
almost  concealed  by  the  pile  of  cinders,  which  has  been  formed  from  itself  in  cool- 
ing. We  heard  frequent  explosions,  caused  by  the  lava  penetrating  caves  and 
blowing  them  up.  The  principal  stream  of  running  lava  which  we  saw  on  the 
plain,  was  three  or  four  miles  southeast  of  the  extremity  of  the  Judd  Koad,  and 
was  moving  west  by  north.  At  this  we  left  the  lava  stream,  and  descended  to 
Umi's  Temple  by  a  short  cut,  through  an  open  forest  of  pjhoehoe.  We  reached 
the  heiau  about  3  P.  M.,  and  arrived  at  Mr.  Johnson's  about  8  o'clock  the  same 
evening.  The  other  division  of  our  party  had  already  visited  the  flow  by  way  of 
Gov.  Adams'  Koad,  and  had  returned.  We  sailed  again  from  Keauhou  the  follow- 
ing Tuesday,  and  arrived  in  Honolulu  on  Sunday  morning." 

IX.— ERUPTION  OF  1868. 

The  last  eruption  on  Hawaii,  (up  to  this  date,)  and  the  ninth  on  record,  occurred 
in  April,  1868.  A  full  account  of  it  was  published  in  the  "  Pacific  Commercial 
Advertiser  "  of  May  9th,  1868,  by  the  writer  of  this  appendix,  who  was  an  eye- 
witness of  it.  This  account  is  given  below,  with  some  omissions  : 

"  The  first  symptoms  of  any  unusual  commotion  on  Mauna  Loa  were  noticed  on 
the  morning  of  March  27th,  about  half-past  5  o'clock,  when  from  the  whaleships  at 
anchor  in  Kawaihae  harbor,  a  dense  column  of  smoke  was  observed  to  rise  in  one 
massive  pillar  to  the  height  ot  several  miles,  directly  over  Mauna  Loa,  accompanied 
with  a  bright  reflection,  showing  that  fires  were  again  active  in  the  great  crater  of 
Mokuaweoweo.  In  a  few  hours  this  pillar-cloud  dispersed  and  passed  off,  and  no 
light  was  seen  on  the  following  night. 

"  At  about  10  A.  M.,  on  the  28th,  a  series  of  earthquakes  began,  which  contin- 
ued at  intervals  with  varied  severity  for  over  a  month.  At  Kona,  as  many  as  fifty 
or  sixty  distinct  shocks  were  felt  in  one  day ;  at  Kau,  over  three  hundred  in  the 
same  time,  and  near  the  great  crater  of  Kilauea  the  earth  is  represented  as  having 
been  in  a  constant  quiver  for  days  together,  with  frequent  vigorous  shocks  that 
would  send  crockery,  chairs,  lamps,  &c.,  spinning  around  in  not  a  very  pleasant 
way.  Mr.  J.  J.  Porter,  the  proprietor  of  the  Volcano  House,  says  he  endured  this 
for  several  days,  as  long  as  he  could,  till  one  night,  about  1 1  o'clock,  *  Pele  sent 
one  of  Rodman's  twenty-inch  shot,  with  a  well-directed  aim,  that  struck  the  ground 
directly  under  his  bed,  when  he  jumped  up  and  ran,  where  or  how  he  hardly  knew, 
but  he  found  himself  after  a  while  in  the  woods,  safe  and  sound.' 

"  One  can  readily  imagine  the  state  of  nervous  excitement  produced  by  the  con- 
tinual swaying  of  the  ground,  with  an  occasional  shock  like  that  produced  by  a 
heavy  rock  striking  the  crust  beneath  him.  A  lady,  who  spent  two  weeks  in  this 
shaky  region,  says  that  she  put  her  ear  down  to  the  earth  during  one  of  the  '  ground- 
swells,'  and  could  distinctly  hear  the  rushing  and  roaring  of  the  lava  waves  beneath 
the  surface,  like  the  surging  of  waves  in  a  storm.  Residents  of  Kau  state  that  over 
two  thousand  distinct  shocks  occurred  there  between  the  28th  of  March  and  the  llth 
of  April,  averaging  over  one  hundred  and  forty  a  day  for  two  weeks. 

fc*  The  earthquakes  continued  to  increase  in  severity  from  March  2Sth  till  April 
2d,  when,  about  4  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  one  took  place  that  shook  down  every 
stone  wall,  and:  nearly  every  stone,  frame  and  thatch  house  throughout  Kau,  and 


APPENDIX.  229 

did  more  or  less  damage  in  every  part  of  Hawaii,  while  it  was  felt  very  sensibly  on 
Maui,  Molokai,  Oahu  and  Kauai,  the  latter  island  being  three  hundred  miles  dis- 
tant from  the  crater.  Every  church  in  Kau  district  was  destroyed,  with  perhaps 
a  single  exception.  The  shock  was  so  severe  that  it  threw  persons  from  their  feet, 
and  even  horses  and  other  animals  were  served  in  the  same  way.  A  gentleman 
riding  on  horseback  in  Waiohinu,  found  his  horse  lying  flat  under  him  before  he 
could  imagine  the  cause.  The  effect  of  the  shock  was  i?istantaneous.  Before  a 
person  could  think,  he  found  himself  prostrate  on  the  ground.  The  large  stone 
church  of  Waiohinu  went  down  in  the  same  way — a  sudden  jerk,  the  walls  crum- 
bled in  and  the  roof  fell  flat — all  the  work  of  ten  seconds.  Judge  F.  S.  Lyman 
describes  this  remarkable  shock  as  follows :  '  Thursday,  (April  2d,)  between  4  and 
5  P.  M.,  we  experienced  the  most  fearful  of  earthquakes  !  First,  the  earth  swayed 
to  and  fro  north  and  south,  then  east  and  west,  round  and  round,  then  up  and  down 
and  in  every  imaginable  direction  for  several  minutes,  everything  crashing  around 
us,  the  trees  thrashing  about  as  if  torn  by  a  mighty  rushing  wind.  It  was  impos- 
sible to  stand ;  we  had  to  sit  on  the  ground,  bracing  with  hands  and  feet  to  keep 
from  rolling  over.'  It  left  nothing  but  desolation  and  ruin  throughout  the  district. 
"  .Respecting  the  course  or  direction  of  the  shocks,  we  have  made  many  inqui- 
ries. Those  felt  on  Oahu  have  mostly  been  undulating,  with  a  wave-like  motion. 
On  Hawaii  they  had  three  distinct  characteristics — the  undulating,  with  the  motion 
generally  from  the  northwest  to  southeast ;  second,  the  sudden  short,  sharp,  jerking 
shock,  occupying  hardly  two  seconds ;  and,  third,  a  thumping,  like  a  boulder  or 
rock  thrown  suddenly  against  the  crust  of  the  earth,  and  as  suddenly  falling  down. 
Each  kind  was  frequently  accompanied  with  a  rattling  noise,  like  distant  thunder 
or  artillery,  more  or  less  distinct.  The  lighter  shocks  generally  had  no  accompany- 
ing noise.  We  experienced  one  of  these  '  thumping '  shocks,  while  sleeping  near 
the  crater  on  the  night  of  April  10th.  It  sounded  precisely  as  if  a  cannon-ball  had 
struck  the  floor  under  us,  and  then  rolled  off  on  the  verandah  floor.  It  started  us 
out  of  a  sound  sleep.  Simultaneous  with  the  heavy  earthquake  on  the  afternoon 
of  April  2d,  occurred 

THE  MUD  ERUPTION  AT  KAPAPALA, 

which  is  so  singular,  and  so  unlike  anything  that  has  heretofore  occurred  on  the 
islands,  that  we  give  a  minute  description  of  it.  Kapapala  is  the  residence  of  Mr. 
Charles  E.  .Richardson  in  Kau,  about  fifteen  miles  from  Kilauea  crater,  and  twenty- 
five  from  Waiohinu.  About  midway  between  Mr.  R.'s  residence  and  that  of  Judge 
Lyman  at  Keaiwa,  six  miles  west,  are  two  beautiful  valleys,  that  extend  from  the 
road  a  couple  of  miles,  which  every  observing  traveler  must  have  noticed.  They 
were  studded  with  groves  of  kukui  and  other  trees,  and  covered  with  a  rich  carpet 
of  the  softest  manienie  grass.  Herds  of  sleek  cattle  were  constantly  browsing  or 
enjoying  the  shade  of  the  cool  groves.  Native  huts  were  scattered  here  and  there, 
and  horsemen  were  frequently  seen  crossing  the  valley. 

"  This  was  the  scene  of  the  '  mud-flow.'  Just  at  the  instant  the  earthquake 
occurred  the  sides  of  the  valley  were  rent,  and  from  the  fissure  burst  out,  with  a 
terrific  noise,  a  stream  of  red  mud  and  water,  which  was  driven  by  the  explosion 
fully  three  miles.  This  stream  was  ejected  simultaneously  with  the  heavy  earth- 
quake from  both  sides  of  the  valley.  Immediately  under  and  near  the  fissures  are 
heaps  of  stones  and  boulders,  which  were  evidently  thrown  out  first,  and  beyond 
these  a  vacant  space,  in  which  a  native  thatch-house  was  left  standing  and  the 
inmates  unharmed,  while  the  mud  and  stones  flew  over  and  beyond  them.  Eighteen 
hundred  feet  from  the  opening  the  pile  of  mud  commences,  and  extends  a  distance 
of  three  miles  from  the  opening,  varying  in  width  from  half  a  mile  to  one  mile,  and 
from  two  feet  at  the  outer  edges  to  twenty  and  thirty  feet  deep  in  the  centre. 
Where  it  crosses  the  road  it  is  thirty  feet  deep  and  half  a  mile  across. 

"  This  mass  of  mud,  covering  an  area  of  at  least  one  thousand  acres  and  weigh- 
ing millions  of  tons,  was  thrown  out  as  if  discharged  from  two  huge  batteries  of  ten 
thousand  twenty-inch  Rodman  guns,  planted  on  each  side  of  the  valley.  At  it* 


230  APPENDIX. 

further  extremity  is  a  pile  of  large  boulders  and  stones,  that  appear  to  have  been 
driven  before  the  powerful  explosion.  As  it  swept  through  the  valley,  with  the 
most  indescribable  and  unearthly  noises,  it  buried  and  destroyed  men,  animals  and 
trees  alike.  Thirty-one  lives  were  lost,  and  between  five  hundred  and  a  thousand 
head  of  cattle,  horses,  goats  and  sheep,  some  of  which  were  just  at  the  moment 
being  driven  across  the  valley  to  the  farm-house.  This  mud,  or  now  more  prop- 
erly dirt,  as  it  has  become  dry,  consists  of  finely  pulverized  red  soil,  such  as  is  so 
often  found  in  the  group.  In  some  places  it  is  mixed  with  stones,  trunks  of  trees, 
fern-leaves,  &c.  Trunks  of  trees  are  found  standing,  with  their  limbs  shot  off  by 
the  explosion.  The  force  with  which  these  streams  were  ejected  from  the  hills,  and 
the  speed,  is  said  by  eye-witnesses  to  have  been  at  the  rate  at  least  of  a  mile  a 
minute.  The  rapidity  was  so  great,  even  at  the  very  edge  of  the  flow,  that  num- 
bers of  goats,  which  were  fleeing  for  life,  were  overtaken  by  it,  and  found  a  short 
time  afterwards  by  Mr.  Richardson,  sticking  by  their  hind  legs  in  the  mud. 

"  From  where  the  mud  was  exploded  now  issues  a  stream  of  clear,  cool  moun- 
tain water,  which  it  is  hoped  will  continue  to  flow,  as  it  is  the  only  stream  in  the 
district.  It  will  be  all  the  more  acceptable,  as  all  Mr.  Richardson's  cisterns  have 
been  totally  destroyed  by  the  same  earthquake  which  produced  the  rivulet.  Some 
of  the  natives  present  at  this  eruption  state  that  the  mud  thrown  out  was  cold, 
others  that  it  was  hot,  and  that  steam  and  smoke  issued  from  the  rent  after  the 
eruption.  It  is  quite  probable  that  the  earthquake  created  a  subterranean  rent, 
which  brought  this  confined  body  of  water  in  contact  with  the  lava  fires  below,  and 
thus  produced  the  explosion  without  heating  the  mass  above.  Mr.  Richardson's 
loss  in  cattle,  horses,  cisterns  and  houses,  has  been  estimated  at  fifteen  thousand 
dollars,  which  is  probably  the  largest  sustained  by  any  one  party.  In  the  valley 
adjoining  there  was  also  a  small  land-slide,  but  not  on  the  scale  noticed  above. 
The  soil  thrown  out  is  rich,  and  will  soon  be  covered  with  dense  vegetation,  espe- 
cially should  the  fine  stream  remain  permanent. 

THE  EARTHQUAKE  WAVE. 

"  Immediately  following  the  above  explosion  and  the  earthquake,  there  occurred 
a  tidal  or  earthquake  wave,  which  caused  great  destruction  of  life  and  property 
along  the  southeast  coast  of  Hawaii,  from  Keauhou  to  Kalae,  the  most  southern 
point  of  the  island.  Judge  Lyman,  whose  residence  is  six  or  eight  miles  from  the 
sea,  describes  the  first  view  of  it  as  follows :  «  Some  one  pointed  to  the  shore,  and 
we  ran  to  where  we  could  see  it.  After  the  hard  shaking  had  ceased,  all  along  the 
sea-shore,  from  directly  below  us  to  Punaluu,  about  three  or  four  miles,  the  sea 
was  boiling  furiously,  all  red,  for  about  an  eighth  of  a  mile  from  the  shore,  and  the 
shore  was  covered  by  the  sea.'  " 

Mr.  Abm.  Fornander,  who  passed  through  the  district  a  day  or  two  before  the 
wave  occurred,  communicated  the  following  to  the  "Hawaiian  Gazette": 

"  At  Keauhou,  the  following  results  of  the  earthquake  on  Thursday  have  been 
reported.  Mr.  Stackpole,  who  had  charge  of  the  place,  had  been  up  to  the  Volcano 
House  during  the  day,  and  was  returning  in  the  afternoon.  While  descending  the 
pali  to  Keauhou,  the  first  shock  occurred,  precipitating  an  immense  amount  of 
earth,  stones  and  boulders  down  the  pali  after  him.  Escaping  these,  he  arrived  on 
the  plateau  below  the  pali,  and  looked  in  the  direction  of  the  village  of  Apua,  but 
not  a  house  was  to  be  seen  !  He  then  rode  down  to  the  edge  of  the  plateau,  from 
whence  Keauhou  ought  to  have  been  in  sight,  but  nothing  of  it  could  be  seen. 
Descending  to  Pahoehoe,  he  met  the  men  working  at  Keauhou  running  up  mauka, 
who  reported  that  nothing  was  left  of  Keauhou ;  that  immediately  after  the  earth- 
quake the  sea  had  rushed  in  and  swept  off  every  dwelling  and  storehouse,  and  all 
their  contents,  and  that  they  had  barely  escaped  with  their  lives.  There  were  some 
167  bales  of  pulu  in  store,  ready  for  shipment,  all  of  which  was  swept  away.  They 
represent  that  the  sea  went  up  as  far  as  the  two  basaltic  columns  indicating  the 
road  down  to  Keauhou — a  depth  of  wave  of  at  least  forty  to  fifty  feet. 


APPENDIX.  23  J 

"  At  Punaluu,  at  the  moment  of  the  shock,  it  seemed  as  if  an  immense  quantity 
of  lava  had  been  discharged  into  the  sea  some  distance  from  the  shore,  for  almost 
instantly  a  terrible  commotion  arose,  the  water  boiling  and  tossing  furiously. 
Shortly  afterwards  a  tremendous  wave  was  sweeping  up  on  the  shore,  and  when 
it  receded  there  was  nothing  left  of  Punaluu  !  Every  house,  the  big  stone  church, 
even  the  cocoanut-trees — all  but  two— were  washed  away.  The  number  of  lives 
lost  is  not  yet  ascertained.  All  who  were  out  fishing  at  the  time  perished,  and 
many  of  those  ashore.  A  big  chasm  opened,  running  from  the  sea  up  into  the 
mountain,  down  which  it  is  said  lava,  mud,  trees,  ferns,  and  rocks  were  rushing 
out  into  the  sea. 

"  The  same  wave  that  swept  away  Punaluu,  also  destroyed  the  villages  of  Ni- 
nole,  Kawaa  and  Honuapo.  Not  a  house  remains  to  mark  the  site  of  these  places, 
except  at  Honuapo,  where  a  small  hale  halawai,  on  the  brow  of  the  hill  above  the 
village,  stood  on  Friday  last.  The  large  cocoanut  grove  at  Honuapo  was  washed 
away,  as  well  as  that  at  Punaluu.  A  part  of  the  big  pali  at  Honuapo,  on  the  road 
to  Waiohinu,  had  tumbled  into  the  sea,  and  people  coming  from  thence  are  now 
obliged  to  take  the  mountain  road  through  Hilea-uka. 

"  The  sea  swept  Kaalualu  on  Thursday  last,  as  it  had  swept  Honuapo  and  the 
other  places  along  the  coast,  washed  away  several  houses,  and  killed  a  number  of 
people — how  many,  is  not  yet  known.  The  earth  had  been  shaking  almost  con- 
stantly and  severely  every  day  and  night.  A  large  land-slide  had  occurred  on  the 
west  side  of  Waiohinu  valley,  near  where  Swain's  tannery  was  formerly  situated. 
Fire  had  been  seen  in  the  mountains  above,  but  none  had  come  down  on  the  low 
lands  between  Kahuku  and  Waiohinu  when  they  left,  on  Monday  morning.  A 
large  hole,  sixty  feet  in  diameter,  had  opened  on  the  flat  below  Kahuku,  with  no 
bottom  visible  from  the  brink  of  it,  and  emitting  quantities  of  sulphuric  vapor. 

"  I  have  just  been  told  an  incident  that  occurred  at  Ninole,  during  the  inunda- 
tion at  that  place.  At  the  time  of  the  shock  on  Thursday,  a  man  named  Holoua, 
and  his  wife,  ran  out  of  the  house  and  -started  for  the  hills  above,  but  remembering 
the  money  he  had  in  the  house,  the  man  left  his  wife  and  returned  to  bring  it 
away.  Just  as  he  had  entered  the  house  the  sea  broke  on  the  shore,  and,  envelop- 
ing the  building,  first  washed  it  several  yards  inland,  and  then, as  the  wave  receded, 
swept  it  off  to  sea,  with  him  in  it.  Being  a  powerful  man,  and  one  of  the  most 
expert  swimmers  in  that  region,  he  succeeded  in  wrenching  off  a  board  or  a  rafter, 
and  with  this  as  a  papa  hee-nalu,  (surf-board,)  he  boldly  struck  out  for  the  shore, 
and  landed  safely  with  the  return  wave.  When  we  consider  the  prodigious  height 
of  the  breaker  on  which  he  rode  to  the  shore,  (fifty,  perhaps  sixty  feet,)  the  feat 
seems  almost  incredible,  were  it  not  that  he  is  now  alive  to  attest  it,  as  well  as  the 
people  on  the  hill-side  who  saw  him. 

"  Mr.  George  Jones  met  a  heavy  loss  at  Keauhou  by  the  inundation.  Besides 
the  houses  and  fixtures  that  were  swept  away  by  the  sea,  he  also  lost  some  167 
bales  of  pulu  that  were  ready  for  shipment.  On  Saturday  last  he  chartered  the 
schooner  Odd  Fellow,  and  started  in  her  to  see  if  he  could  not  pick  up  some  of  the 
pulu  that  might  have  been  washed  along  the  shore  between  there  and  the  south 
point. 

"  Hilo  and  Puna  have  suffered,  so  far,  comparatively  least,  though  the  shocks 
were  severe  and  frequent,  and  still  continue,  and  the  damage  to  houses  and  prop- 
erty is  very  large.  But  poor  Kau  is  almost  wholly  destroyed.  The  sea  washed 
away  the  coast  villages,  and  the  earthquake  razed  the  inland  places. 

"  The  number  of  people  now  known  to  have  perished  between  Ninole  and  Kea- 
iwa,  (Punaluu  and  Hionamoa  included,)  is  47;  at  Kawaa,  7;  at  Honuapo,  27; 
total,  81,  besides  a  number  of  the  pulu-pickers  up  in  the  mountains,  back  of  Hilea; 
how  many  I  am  not  yet  advised,  neither  have  I  heard  the  number  of  those  who  per- 
ished at  Kaalualu." 

This  was  one  of  those  sad  catastrophes  where  "  distance  lends  enchantment  to 
the  scene,"  and  which  few  witnessed.  From  all  we  can  gather  from  the  above  and 


232  APPENDIX. 

other  sources,  the  wave  rolled  in  along  the  Kau  coast  from  forty  to  sixty  feet  high, 
and  receded  five  times,  decreasing  in  force  each  successive  time.  It  covered  the 
tops  of  the  lower  cocoanut-trees,  swept  inland  from  five  hundred  to  six  hundred 
yards,  and  destroyed  nearly  everything  movable,  including  the  trees  growing  along 
the  shore.  The  total  number  of  lives  lost  during  the  earthquakes  and  tide-wave 
was  about  one  hundred. 

After  these  events  on  the  2d  of  March,  earthquakes  continued  to  be  frequent 
and  alarming,  but  nothing  noteworthy  occurred  till  the  7th,  when  a  lava  eruption 
took  place  above  Kahuka,  seven  miles  northwest  of  Waiohinu,  in  the  district  of 
Kau,  which  is  the  most  southern  district  on  the  island. 

A  company  of  eight  or  ten,  including  the  writer,  left  Honolulu  in  the  steamer 
for  Kona  on  the  6th  of  April,  and  arrived  at  Kahuku  on  the  10th,  three  days  after 
the  eruption  broke  out.  We  consequently  had  the  first  opportunity  that  could  pos- 
sibly have  been  sought  for  seeing  what  proved  to  be  a  most  brilliant  display. 

On  the  passage  to  Hawaii  in  the  steamer,  on  the  night  of  the  7th,  the  whole 
island  of  Hawaii  was  brilliantly  illuminated,  the  overhanging  clouds  reflecting 
the  glare  of  the  fires  beneath,  and  a  stream  of  la\a  was  seen  from  the  vessel,  a  dis- 
tance of  at  lest  one  hundred  miles. 

We  left  Kealakeakua  Bay  on  the  morning  of  the  9th  of  April,  and  after  a  slow, 
tedious  ride  of  twenty-seven  miles,  over  lava  clinkers,  reached  Kapua  towards  night, 
where  we  slept  in  a  thatch-house,  built  by  Mr.  C.  N.  Spencer  as  an  accommodation 
house,  it  being  just  half  way  between  the  bay  and  Waiohinu,  and  distant  from  the 
lava  flow  about  thirteen  miles.  During  the  night  we  could  hear  the  distant  noise 
of  the  eruption — a  peculiar  rumbling,  so  different  from  the  roar  of  the  sea  or  any 
other  noise,  that,  to  wake  up  at  night  and  listen  to  its  unaccountable  utterances, 
tended  to  create  fear  with  those  who  for  the  first  time  heard  it.  In  the  morning 
several  of  the  party  decided  to  turn  back  to  Kealakeakua,  and  returned  without  see- 
ing the  grand  sight  before  us.  The  others,  seven  in  number,  not  counting  native 
attendants,  mounted  horses  and  proceeded  on  to  the  flow. 

As  we  approached  it,  the  rumbling  noise  became  more  and  more  distinct,  and 
the  evidences  of  approach  to  some  great  disturbance  of  nature  more  frequent.  The 
ground  was  covered  with  what  appeared  to  be  cinders,  but  on  examining  them  we 
found  they  were  fragments  of  pumice-stone,  which  had  been  carried  by  the  wind  a 
distance  of  over  ten  miles.  Mixed  with  these  cinders  was  "  Pele's  hair,"  which 
we  found  floating  in  the  air,  and  when  it  fell  thick  we  had  to  hold  our  handker- 
chiefs to  our  nostrils  to  prevent  inhaling  it.  Our  clothes  were  frequently  covered 
with  it.  On  reaching  an  eminence  five  miles  from  the  stream,  we  found  a  group 
of  forty  or  fifty  natives  who  were  waiting  to  cross  over  to  Kau,  and  had  been  here 
several  days.  From  this  point  dense  clouds  of  smoke  could  be  seen  rising  all  along 
the  lava  stream,  from  the  mountain-side  to  the  sea. 

We  hurried  on  and  reached  the  flow  shortly  after  noon,  where,  from  a  ridge  to 
the  west  of  it,  the  whole  scene  opened  before  us.  Between  us  and  the  crater  was 
a  valley  five  hundred  yards  wide  and  ten  miles  long,  which  had  recently  been  over- 
flowed throughout  the  entire  width  and  length  from  the  mountain  to  the  sea,  where 
it  widened  to  two  or  three  miles.  The  lava  was  of  the  smooth  pahoehoe  variety, 
from  ten  to  twenty  feet  deep,  and  partially  cooled  over,  though  flames,  smoke  and 
gas  escaped  from  numerous  crevices.  We  stood  on  it,  though  it  was  hot  enough 
to  burn  the  soles  of  our  shoes.  This  lava  stream  originated  some  ten  miles  up  the 
mountain,  and  came  down  early  on  the  morning  of  the  7th.  It  had  ceased  flowing, 
the  eruption  having  opened  a  vent  lower  down  and  further  south. 

Beyond  this  valley,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  distant,  was  the  pali  of  Mamalu, 
a  steep  precipice,  which  runs  from  the  mountain  to  the  south  point  of  Hawaii,  and 
forms  the  west  boundary  of  the  table-land  of  Kahuku,  a  beautiful  level  plateau, 
covered  with  tall  grass,  affording  excellent  pasturage  for  herds  of  cattle,  horses, 
sheep  and  goats.  About  a  mile  above  the  road  were  the  farm-houses  of  Captain 
Robert  Brown,  who  lived  there  with  his  family.  Near  by  were  the  dairy  establish- 


APPENDIX.  233 

ment  of  Mr.  C.  N.  Spencer,  and  other  dwellings.  This  plateau  was  several  miles 
in  extent,  running  as  far  as  Waiohinu,  sloping  gently  off  to  the  sea,  and  dotted 
with  hillocks. 

On  Tuesday  afternoon,  April  7th,  at  5  o'clock,  a  new  crater,  several  miles  lower 
down  than  that  referred  to,  and  about  two  miles  back  of  Captain  Brown's  residence, 
burst  out.  The  lava  stream  commenced  flowing  down  the  beautiful  grass-covered 
plateau  towards  and  around  the  farm-house,  and  the  inmates  had  barely  time  to 
escape  with  the  clothes  they  had  on,  before  the  houses  were  all  surrounded,  burned 
and  covered  with  streams  of  fiery  lava,  varying  from  five  to  fifty  feet  in  depth. 
Fortunately,  all  the  inmates  escaped  safely  to  Waiohinu,  but  how  narrow  the  escape 
was,  and  how  rapidly  the  stream  flowed,  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  the  path 
by  which  they  escaped  was  covered  with  lava  ten  minutes  after  they  passed  over  it. 

On  ascending  the  ridge  we  found  the  eruption  in  full  blast.  Four  enormous 
fountains,  apparently  distinct  from  each  other,  and  yet  forming  a  line  a  mile  long, 
north  and  south,  were  continually  spouting  up  from  the  opening.  These  jets,  were 
blood-red  and  yet  as  fluid  as  water,  ever  varying  in  size,  bulk  and  height.  Some- 
times two  would  join  together,  and  again  the  whole  four  would  be  united,  making 
one  continuous  fountain  a  mile  in  length. 

From  the  lower  end  of  the  crater  a  stream  of  very  liquid,  boiling  lava  flowed 
out  and  down  the  plateau,  a  distance  of  two  or  three  miles,  then  following  the  track 
of  the  Government  road,  ran  down  the  precipice  at  an  angle  of  about  thirty  degrees, 
thence  along  the  foot  of  the  pali  or  precipice  five  miles  to  the  sea,  the  stream  being 
eight  or  ten  miles  in  length,  and  in  some  places  half  a  mile  wide. 

This  was  the  magnificent  scene,  to  see  which  we  had  hurriedly  left  Honolulu^ 
and  had  fortunately  arrived  at  the  right  moment  to  witness,  as  it  opened  before  us 
in  all  its  majestic  grandeur  and  unrivalled  beauty.  At  the  left  were  those  four 
great  fountains,  boiling  up  with  most  terrific  fury,  throwing  crimson  lava  and  enor- 
mous stones,  weighing1  many  tons,  to  a  height  varying  constantly  from  five 
hundred  to  six  hundred  feet.  At  times  these  red-hot  rocks  completely  filled  the 
air,  causing  a  great  noise  and  roar,  and  flying  in  every  direction,  but  generally 
towards  the  south.  Sometimes  the  fountains  would  all  subside  for  a  few  minutes, 
and  then  commence  increasing  till  the  stones  and  liquid  lava  reached  a  thousand 
feet  in  hight.  The  grandeur  of  this  picture,  ever  varying  like  a  panorama,  painted 
in  the  richest  crimson  hues,  no  person  can  realize  unless  he  has  witnessed  it. 

From  this  great  fountain  to  the  sea  flowed  a  rapid  stream  of  red  lava,  rolling, 
rushing  and  tumbling  like  a  swollen  river,  and  bearing  along  in  its  current  large 
rocks  that  almost  made  the  lava  foam,  as  it  dashed  down  the  precipice  and  through 
the  valley  into  the  sea,  surging  and  roaring  throughout  its  length  like  a  cataract, 
with  a  power  and  fury  perfectly  indescribable.  It  was  nothing  else  than  a  river  of 
fire,  from  two  hundred  to  eight  hundred  feet  wide  and  twenty  feet  deep,  with  a 
speed  varying  from  ten  to  twenty-five  miles  nn  hour.  As  a  huge  boulder  floated 
down,  we  imagined  what  if  it  were  the  iron-clad  Stonewall,  which  had  just  left  our 
harbor — would  she  have  floated  on  to  the  sea  unscathed,  or  turned  into  molten  lava, 
and  vanished  from  sight  ? 

Night  soon  came,  and  with  it  the  scene  became  a  thousand-fold  more  beautiful, 
the  crimson  of  the  fountains  and  the  river  doubly  rich  and  brilliant,  the  lurid  glare 
of  the  dense  clouds  of  smoke  that  overhung  us.  and  the  roaring  of  the  crater  and 
the  cataract  were  fearfully  grand  and  awe-inspiring.  It  was  like  a  conflagration 
of  London  or  Paris,  as  the  whole  scene  extended  over  a  distance  of  ten  miles.  Add 
to  this  the  flashes  of  lightning  and  the  sharp,  quick  claps  of  thunder,  and  the  reader 
can  imagine  that  a  scene  was  before  us  that  well  repaid  us  for  our  opportune  visit. 

Dr.  William  Hillebrand  and  others  have  visited  the  crater  since  it  ceased  flow- 
ing, and  find  that  it  consists  simply  of  a  rent  or  fissure  in  the  earth,  from  ten  to 
twenty  feet  wide.  He  traced  it  about  three  miles  up  the  mountain,  but  it  is  quite 
probable  that  it  extends  several  miles  farther  on,  as  the  mountain  continues  smok- 
ing in  a  line  ten  miles  above.  There  is,  therefore,  no  large  crater,  properly  speak- 
30 


234  APPENDIX. 

ing,  but  the  lava  flow  was  confined  to  this  rupture,  which  continued  to  open  lower 
down  as  the  molten  lava  acted  on  it. 

The  view  which  we  obtained  of  the  eruption  from  the  Kona  side,  on  the  10th 
of  April,  was  therefore  a  side  view,  and  probably  the  finest  and  nearest  that  could 
possibly  have  been  had.  One  peculiarity  of  this  spouting  was,  that  the  lava  was 
ejected  with  a  rotary  motion,  and  as  it  ascended  the  air  both  the  lava  and  stones 
rotated  always  in  one  direction,  towards  the  south.  In  this  respect  it  differed  from 
that  of  1859,  which  we  were  also  among  the  first  to  witness.  This  rotary  motion 
of  the  lava  would  appear  to  have  originated  below  the  surface,  as  it  rolled  along 
like  waves,  and  corresponds  with  the  surging  sounds  heard  by  the  inhabitants  of 
Kau  during  the  heavy  earthquake  shocks. 

Regarding  the  rapidity  of  the  stream  of  lava,  since  reading  accounts  of  former 
eruptions,  in  which  it  is  claimed  that  the  lava  flowed  forty  miles  an  hour,  we  will 
add  that  it  is  hardly  possible  to  conceive  of  a  stream  flowing  with  greater  rapidity 
than  the  cataract  and  river  we  witnessed  April  10th.  It  reminded  us  of  the  Con- 
necticut river  in  a  spring-flood,  with  the  stream  filled  with  ice  and  rushing  over  the 
rapids  at  an  impetuous  rate.  The  speed  is  more  likely  to  have  been  twenty-five 
miles  an  hour  than  twelve.  Where  it  ran  down  the  precipice,  at  an  angle  of  about 
thirty  degrees,  it  was  more  narrow  and  rapid  than  lower  down,  where  it  spread  out 
broader.  This  was  the  only  stream  that  reached  the  sea,  and  flowed  into  it  a  little 
west  of  the  south  point  of  the  island,  at  a  place  called  Kailikii.  It  lasted  only  five 
days,  the  eruption  ceasing  entirely  on  the  night  of  the  llth  or  morning  of  the  12th. 

During  its  continuance  the  atmosphere  was  filled  with  smoke  so  dense  that  the 
sun  appeared  like  a  ball  of  fire,  and  the  whole  island  was  shrouded  in  darkness. 
This  smoke  came  from  the  rent  or  crater,  and  was  highly  charged  with  sulphur. 
As  it  spread  over  the  island,  it  carried  a  deadly  blast  to  vegetation,  and  the  leaves 
of  the  more  tender  plants  and  vegetables  were  withered  and  died.  It  did  not  kill 
the  plants  in  any  sections,  that  we  could  learn. 

Opposite  the  point  of  coast  where  the  Java  reached  the  sea,  a  small  conical 
island  was  thrown  up  in  the  sea,  half  a  mile  distant  from  the  shore,  consisting  of 
mud  and  sand,  and  emitting  steam  from  its  summit.  This  island  has  become  joined 
to  the  main  land  by  the  lava  flowing  from  the  new  eruption.  As  the  lava  entered 
the  sea,  clouds  of  steam  and  smoke  rose  up,  and  flames  of  blueish  fire  were  emitted., 
rising  from  the  water  to  a  height  of  from  ten  to  twenty  feet. 

During  the  night  we  were  at  the  volcano,  the  air  was  highly  charged  with  sul- 
phur gas  and  electricity,  and  frequent  flashes  of  lightning  were  seen  over  the  lava 
stream,  accompanied  with  short  claps  of  thunder.  These  flashes  were  also  observed 
less  frequently  farther  up  the  mountain. 

Two  kinds  of  lava  were  erupted  during  the  flow.  It  commenced  with  a  stream 
of  smooth,  glossy  lava,  known  here  as  the  pahoehoe,  which  was  followed  by  the 
thick,  dirty  kind,  called  aa.  Kahuku  farm  was  nearly  covered  with  the  latter, 
which  branched  out  into  four  wide  streams,  covering  a  space  of  four  miles  wide  and 
long.  This 'was  followed  again  by  the  liquid  or  pahoehoe,  which  ran  into  the  sea, 
and  continued  till  the  eruption  ceased.  About  four  thousand  acres  of  good  pasture 
land  were  destroyed,  besides  which  the  lava  ran  over  an  immense  district  of  worth- 
less land. 

On  the  night  of  the  6th,  prior  to  the  eruption,  there  was  a  shower  of  ashes  and 
pumice-stone,  which  came  from  this  crater,  and  covered  the  country  to  the  distance 
of  ten  or  fifteen  miles  each  way.  "Generally  the  ashes  were  not  more  than  one  or 
two  inches  in  depth,  but  in  some  places  were  found  to  be  fifteen.  The  pumice- 
stone  was  very  light,  and  appears  to  have  been  carried  by  the  wind  a  great  distance. 
Pieces  two  and  three  inches  in  size  floated  ashore  at  Kealakeakua  Bay,  forty-five 
miles  distant. 

The  roaring  of  the  crater  was  a  novel  feature  to  those  who  had  never  visited  an 
eruption  before.  It  was  caused  by  the  rocks  thrown  out  by  the  crater,  and  the 
crushing  process  of  the  aa  as  it  moved  along.  This  aa  flow  is  composed  of 


APPENDIX.  235 

half-melted  lava,  and  as  it  is  pushed  along  piles  up  sometimes  fifty  or  even  a  hun- 
dred feet  high,  presenting  the  appearance  of  a  railroad  embankment,  the  sides  hav- 
ing an  angle  of  about  forty  degrees,  down  which  the  lava  stones  keep  rolling.  This 
stream  generally  moves  along  slowly,  but  when  the  quantity  of  liquid  lava,  which 
floats  and  carries  along  the  aa,  is  abundant,  it  moves  from  one  to  four  miles  an 
hour.  What  makes  the  difference  between  the  dry  aa  lava  and  the  liquid  pahoe- 
hoe,  which  flows  like  water,  is  an  interesting  subject  of  inquiry  that  has  never  been 
settled.  They  both  flow  from  the  same  craters,  one  giving  place  to  the  other  in 
turns.  Our  own  opinion  is  that  the  smooth  liquid  variety  obtains  its  character  by 
long  fusion,  while  the  aa  variety  (which  appears  like  half-melted  stones  and  dirt 
mixed  together)  consists  of  the  interior  surface  of  the  earth  torn  off  and  thrown  out 
during  the  eruption.  An  examination  of  the  various  aa  streams  tends  to  confirm 
this  theory. 

Besides  the  dwelling  and  premises,  which  were  completely  burned  and  covered 
up  ten  feet  deep  by  the  lava,  Captain  Brown  lost  one  hundred  head  of  cattle, 
and  other  parties  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  head.  These  cattle  appeared  to  be 
paralyzed  on  the  approach  of  the  lava,  and  made  no  efforts  to  escape.  It  is  difficult 
to  estimate  the  loss  of  property  on  Kahuku,  but  it  may  be  roughly  set  down  at 
from  ten  to  fifteen  thousand  dollars.  The  houses  destroyed  were  not  expensive, 
the  main  loss  being  in  land  and  stock. 

The  lava  thrown  out  during  this  eruption  has  been  of  a  more  porous  nature 
.than  in  most  of  the  late  ones.  Some  ot  the  specimens  we  have  seen  are  exceed- 
ingly light.  The  shower  of  yellowish  pumice-stone,  which  preceded  the  lava  flow, 
was  also  something  unusual  in  Hawaiian  eruptions,  and  showed  the  eruption  to 
possess  a  new  character,  perhaps  the  existence  of  more  than  usual  steam  and  gases 
in  its  composition.  Some  have  wondered  why  the  flow  ceased  so  suddenly — con- 
tinuing only  five  days.  The  cause  is  probably  this :  so  soon  as  the  steam,  which 
has  been  the  active  agent  in  producing  the  earthquake  shocks,  and  in  raising  the 
lava  so  near  to  the  top  of  the  summit  crater  that  it  lightened  up  the  clouds  above 
it,  found  vents  lower  down  the  mountain,  the  eruption  lost  much  of  its  power,  and 
allowed  the  lava  to  rapidly  sudside.  It  is  probable  also  that  the  submarine  erup- 
tions noticed  checked  the  eruptions  on  land. 

The  quantity  of  lava  thrown  out  has  not  probably  been  one-tenth  what  was 
discharged  in  1859,  but  the  quantity  of  steam,  gas  and  smoke  emitted  during  one 
week,  must  have  exceeded  what  escaped  during  ten  weeks  in  1859,  when  the  vol- 
ume of  smoke  was  comparatively  small.  We  judge  so  from  its  density  over  all 
the  group  and  for  a  thousand  miles  off.  This  has  not  occurred  in  any  late  previous 
eruption  to  the  same  extent.  The  inference  therefore  may  be  drawn  that  when  an 
unusual  quantity  of  gases  and  smoke  escapes,  a  less  amount  of  lava  will  be  dis- 
charged ;  and,  vice  versa,  when  the  quantity  of  smoke  is  small,  the  amount  of  lava 
is  increased. 

Respecting  the  weather  during  March,  it  may  be  added  that  it  was  of  the  same 
stormy  character  as  has  prevailed  all  over  the  western  hemisphere,  including  the 
North  and  South  Pacific.  The  quantity  of  rain  that  has  fallen  on  the  mountains 
of  Hawaii  has  also  been  large  ;  but  to  what  extent  these  have  affected  the  internal 
fires,  and  produced  the  earthquakes  and  eruptions,  must  remain  a  matter  of 
conjecture.  The  thermometer  during  the  same  month  showed  no  unusual  fluctua- 
tion, ranging  from  68  °  to  70  °  at  sunrise,  and  83  °  to  84  °  at  noon,  with  consid- 
erable regularity. 

Dr.  Hillebrand  communicated  to  the  "Gazette  "  an  account  of  his  visit  to  the 
crater,  from  which  we  take  the  following : 

"  As  the  principal  interest  was  the  discovery  ot  the  main  source  of  the  stream, 
we  at  once  went  to  that  part  of  it  where,  according  to  common  report,  the  lava  had 
issued.  A  very  light,  dark-brown,  glistening  pumice-stone  lay  scattered  about  long 
before  the  lava  was  seen.  Near  the  flow  it  increased  so  much  that  the  animals' 
feet  sank  deep  into  it  at  every  step.  We  soon  reached  the  ridge  of  a  hill,  from 


236  APPENDIX. 

which  we  surveyed  the  place  where,  according  to  our  guide's  account,  the  fountain 
of  lava  had  been  seen.  This  upper  portion  of  the  lava  stream  fills  a  broad  valley 
or  depression,  between  two  parallel  low  hills  of  not  more  than  three  hundred  feet 
high,  both  running  almost  due  north  and  south.  From  the  western  one  of  these 
hills  Mr.  Whitney  had  witnessed  the  eruption.  From  the  eastern  hill  we  in  vain 
looked  for  a  crater  or  cone.  We  did  not  make  out  any  indication  of  the  character 
of  the  eruption  until  we  had  crossed  nearly  three-fourths  of  the  stream,  which  here 
is  not  far  from  a  mile  wide.  Then  our  attention  was  attracted  by  an  accumulation 
of  scoria.  Nearing  this,  we  were  struck  by  a  current  of  hot  air,  and,  a  little  further 
on,  found  ourselves  on  the  brink  of  a  deep  gap  in  the  lava,  about  twenty  feet  wide, 
but  narrowing  and  continuing  itself  northward.  We  walked  round  the  southern 
end  of  the  gap  and  followed  it  up  on  the  west  or  lee  side.  Before  long  we  came 
to  another  enlargement  of  the  fissure  like  the  former,  emitting  hot  air  charged  with 
acid  gases,  which  drove  us  back.  Still  continuing  our  march  on  the  west  side  of 
the  fissure,  as  close  as  the  hot  gases  would*  allow,  we  came  in  sight  of  a  pretty 
miniature  cone,  built  up  most  regularly  of  loose  scoria  to  the  height  of  twelve  feet, 
and  located  right  over  the  fissure.  It  encloses  a  chimney  crater  of  about  twelve 
feet  in  diameter,  with  perpendicular  sides,  the  depth  of  which  could  not  be  ascer- 
tained. •  Hot  gases  issued  in  abundance.  On  account  of  the  exhalation  of  the  lat- 
ter, we  were  obliged  to  cross  the  chasm,  on  the  bridge  formed  by  the  cone,  to  the 
windward  side,  along  which  we  followed  up  steadily. 

CONCLUDING  REMARKS.  *" 

The  record  of  the  eruptions  on  Mauna  Loa  shows  that  there  have  been  nine 
during  the  last  seventy-nine  years,  or  one  in  about  every  nine  years.  It  is 
not  improbable  that  some  took  place  between  1789  and  1823,  of  which  no  record 
has  been  preserved.  The  latter  is  the  first  which  occurred  after  the  arrival  of  the 
missionaries  in  1820.  If  we  take  the  date  of  1823  as  the  more  reliable  one  on 
which  to  base  an  estimate  of  the  frequency  of  the  eruptions  on  Hawaii,  we  find 
that  there  have  been  eight  during  forty-five  years,  or  one  in  about  every  five  and  a 
half  years. 

These  eruptions  on  Hawaii  are  evidently  produced  by  no  local  causes,  but  are 
attributable  to  the  agency  which  disturbs  the  internal  fires  of  the  earth,  and  pro- 
duces eruptions  wherever  vents  are  found.  The  most  careful  observer  is  unable  to 
detect  in  the  atmosphere  signs  of  an  approaching  eruption,  and  probably  nothing 
but  the  frequency  and  force  of  the  earthquakes  which  generally  (though  not  always) 
precede  them  can  be  relied  on  as  true  indicators  of  the  disturbance  of  the  internal 
fires,  and  of  an  impending  eruption. 

The  last  eruption  (in  1868)  occurred  about  the  same  time,  or  soon  after,  the 
earthquakes,  hurricanes  and  eruptions  chronicled  in  South  America,  the  East  and 
West  Indies,  and  about  six  months  before  the  severe  earthquake  of  October,  1868, 
in  San  Francisco.  These  facts  indicate  that  volcanoes  located  in  different  coun- 
tries, have  a  connection  more  or  less  intimate ;  but  beyond  this,  little  has  been 
learned  of  the  laws  governing  them,  and  so  far  as  the  history  of  Mauna  Loa  is 
known,  it  shows  a  sympathy  with  volcanoes  located  in  other  countries. 

THE  CRATER  OF  KILAUEA. 

The  following  vivid  description  of  the  great  Crater  of  Kilauea  is  from  the  pen 
of  Mr.  Jarves,  and  is  taken  from  his  "  Scenes  aihd  Scenery,"  pp.  237  to  251,  a 
work  to  which  we  have  made  frequent  reference.  As  a  description  of  the  crater  as 
it  appeared  thirty  years  ago,  it  will  be  found  interesting- : 

**  The  expectations  of  those  who  have  formed  their  ideas  of  volcanoes  from  the 
stereotyped  representations  of  Vesuvius  and  jEtna,  with  their  conical  sides  and 
narrowed  top,  lava  red  and  liquid  running  like  rivers  down  its  sides,  stones  and 
rocks  soaring  like  feathers  in  the  air,  and  volumes  of  steam  and  smoke,  larger  than 


APPENDIX.  231 

die  mountains  themselves,  ascending  yet  higher,  will  not  be  realized.  *  Lua  Pele,' 
or  Kilauea,  is  unlike  anything  of  the  kind,  nnd  stands  by  itself,  an  anomaly  in 
nature  ;  the  mightiest  and  most  wonderful  of  earth's  safety-valves.  As  we  gazed, 
its  immensity  grew  upon  us.  More  and  more  we  realized  its  vastness;  the  stu- 
pendous area  of  the  whole  became  more  apparent  by  analyzing  its  parts.  Vesuvius 
might  easily  have  lost  itself  in  that  pit.  All  was  black,  with  occasional  gleamings 
of  red,  like  the  forkings  of  lightning  in  a  dense  thunder-cloud.  It  looked  like  the 
ruins  of  some  mighty  conflagration,  from  which  the  smoke  and  flame  still  rose,  and 
at  any  moment  liable  to  break  out  again,  fiercer  than  before.  At  the  farther  extrem- 
ity, a  bright  light  showed  itself,  like  the  flickering  flame  of  half-extinguished  em- 
bers, and  all  was  silent  except  the  occasional  hissing  of  gases  and  steam.  1  thought 
of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  and  the  cities  of  the  plain.  They  must  have  appeared 
like  this,  before  the  waters  flowed  in  and  buried  them  forever.  After. gazing  until 
nightfall,  we  hastened  to  the  hut,  where  we  were  to  sleep,  a  mere  shelter  of  roots 
and  grass  thrown  upon  a  few  sticks,  and  covered  on  the  windward  side  only.  It 
was  but  three  feet  from  the  brink  of  a  perpendicular  precipice  of  four  hundred  feet, 
a  portion  of  which  had  lately  slid  down  part  way,  and  hung  threateningly  over  the 
remainder.  Back  of  it  was  a  crack  in  the  earth,  through  which  the  steam  con- 
stantly escaped.  So  occupied  were  we  with  the  scene  before  us,  that  the  danger 
to  which  we  were  exposed  in  sleeping  here  did  not  occur  to  us  until  we  were  ready 
to  leave  the  crater,  and  the  excitement  was  over.  A  slight  shock  of  earthquake, 
and  we  should  have  known  nothing  more.  However,  having  supped,  we  spread 
our  blankets,  with  our  heads  towards  the  abyss,  to  be  prepared  for  any  display 
which  might  occur  during  the  night,  which  closed  in  with  a  cold,  drizzling  rain. 
The  wind  blew  in  furious  squalls,  threatening  at  every  gust  to  drive  our  frail  shel- 
ter into  the  pit  below.  In  the  chasm,  along  its  walls,  and  through  the  numberless 
rents  and  galleries  of  the  superincumbent  rock,  the  blast  howled  dismally  ;  at  times 
dying  away  like  the  moan  of  some  wounded  animal ;  and  then  again  giving  a  fitful 
shriek,  as  it  whirled  through  some  narrow  pass,  and  echoed  itself  from  a  hundred 
others.  The  storm-spirit  was  abroad,  and  triumphantly  careered  over  the  habita- 
tion of  the  fierce  goddess,  daring  her  to  the  contest.  Her  response  was  sullen  and 
ominous.  The  hitherto  quiet  crater  at  intervals  threw  up  columns  of  hot  steam, 
stones  and  ashes,  accompanied  with  loud  reports,  resembling  the  discharges  of 
heavy  artillery  in  a  confined  place.  Occasionally  the  fires  at  the  farther  extremity 
would  gleam  up  with  considerable  brilliancy;  excepting  this,  nothing  was  to  be 
seen  through  the  darkness  but  the  outlines  of  the  chasm  before  us,  and  the  whirl- 
ing mist  and  smoke,  reflecting  the  glare  of  the  fires. 

"  What  with  the  rain  and  cold,  it  was  an  uncomfortable  night ;  the  scene  itself 
was  too  novel  and  exciting  to  allow  either  the  body  or  imagination  to  slumber. 
Occasionally  I  fell  into  a  doze,  from  which  a  gleam  from  some  new  fire,  or  a  vio- 
lent explosion,  aroused  me.  On  such  occasions,  straining  my  eyes  to  pierce  the 
turmoil  beneath,  I  ceased  to  wonder  that  native  intellect  had  peopled  a  place  like 
this  with  strange  and  fearful  beings.  .It  was  a  fit  habitation  for  their  malignant 
deities.  If  the  Christian,  in  this  scene,  pictures  to  himself  hell  and  its  torments, 
and  how  often  has  it  been  thus  likened,  is  the  savage  to  be  blamed,  who  sees  in  it 
strange  shapes,  and  fiery  halls,  the  lakes,  the  palaces,  and  dwelling-places  of  his 
devils  ?  Pele,  the  consuming  goddess,  insatiable  as  her  element,  the  fire  itself, 
1  the  rain  of  night.'  '  the  king  of  vapor,'  '  the  thundering  god,'  *  heaven-dwelling 
rloud-holder,'  «  fiery-eyed  canoe-breaker,'  these,  and  many  others,  with  names  alike 
expressive  of  the  varied  actions  of  the  crater,  here,  according  to  Hawaiian  myth- 
ology, hold  their  court.  They  have  gone  from  the  minds  of  men,  bnt  their  abode 
remains  unchanged.  Their  requiem  was  borne  to  our  ears  in  the  driving  storm, 
the  whistling  wind,  the  fire  and  smoke,  and  all  that  was  furious  and  destructive. 
The  morning  of  the  fifth  broke  as  the  previous  evening  had  commenced,  but  the 
sun  soon  dispelled  much  of  the  mist,  and  left  us  a  pleasant  day  for  our  researches. 
Thermometer,  58  degrees. 


238  APPENDIX. 

"  The  plain  on  the  north  is  much  split  up  by  fissures,  from  which  steam  contin- 
ually issues,  hot  enough  to  cook  meat  or  vegetables.  In  a  few  places  it  condenses 
and  forms  excellent  drinking  water.  Four  species  of  very  palatable  berries  grew 
here  abundantly,  commonly  called  « huckleberries,'  though  they  have  little  resem- 
blance in  flavor,  and  none  in  color,  to  that  fruit.  To  the  northeast  of  this  plain, 
we  find  sulphur  banks  several  hundred  yards  in  extent,  and  about  twenty  feet  high. 
The  gases  were  not  powerful,  and  by  digging  into  the  earth,  which  was  hot,  soft, 
and  greasy,  we  obtained  some  beautiful  specimens  of  sulphur,  in  all  its  different 
forms,  the  best  of  which,  however,  soon  lost  their  beauty  by  exposure  to  the  air. 
The  efflorescences  at  the  mouth  of  the  crevices  were  exceedingly  delicate  and  beau- 
tiful. These  banks  appear  to  be  volcanic  rock,  decomposed  by  sulphuric  acids,  for 
it  is  to  be  seen  in  all  its  stages,  from  the  hard  rock  to  the  soft  paste.  An  hour's 
steaming  here  dissipated  all  the  pain  and  soreness  which  we  felt  from  our  exposure 
to  the  weather. 

«  We  estimated  the  circumference  of  the  whole  crater  at  five  miles,  the  western 
side  of  which  was  the  highest ;  but  in  no  place  did  the  depth  to  the  black  ledge 
exceed  five  hundred  feet.  It  is  more  oval  than  circular,  its  greatest  breadth  being 
from  northeast  to  southwest,  and  is  aptly  termed  by  the  natives  «  Lua  Pele,'  (Pele's 
Pit,)  for  it  is  nothing  but  an  immense  hole,  which  the  fire  has  eaten  in  the  ground. 
The  natives  have  no  other  tradition  of  its  origin,  than  that  it  has  been  burning  from 
the  time  'of  chaos'  until  now,  gradually  extending  itself  laterally  and  perpendicu- 
larly. Formerly,  it  overflowed  its  banks,  and  the  reign  of  each  of  their  kings  ha? 
witnessed  destructive  eruptions, 

"  Count  Strzelecki  makes  the  north-northeast  cliff  four  thousand  one  hundred 
and  one  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea ;  Douglas,  three  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  seventy-four.  In  descending  to  the  black  ledge,  at  the  northeast  extremity, 
the  path  winds  round  an  old  crater,  small  and  steep  on  all  sides ;  its  bottom  is  cov- 
ered with  masses  of  large  rocks,  shaken  down  by  earthquakes,  and  large  trees 
are  also  growing  in  it,  indicating  a  long  repose. 

"  Following  this  path,  we  soon  arrived  on  the  ledge,  which  appeared  like  a  field 
of  ice  breaking  up  in  the  spring.  It  varied  from  five  hundred  to  two  thousand  feet 
in  width,  and  then  abruptly  terminated  in  craggy  and  overhanging  precipices,  which 
had  burst  in  every  direction,  from  the  action  of  the  fire  beneath.  The  main  body 
of  the  crater  had  settled  down  from  the  black  ledge,  in  some  places  gradually,  until 
its  own  weight  burst  it  violently  from  the  edge,  leaving  gaping  chasms,  the  sides  of 
which  were  intensely  heated  ;  at  others,  it  appeared  to  have  sunk  instantaneously, 
tearing  away  and  undermining  the  ledge,  and  leaving  precipices  of  two  hundred 
feet  in  height.  The  greatest  depth  was  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet.  The 
lakes,  cones  and  forges  remained,  but  were  emptied  of  lava,  and  quiet,  emitting 
nothing  but  smoke,  excepting  a  lake  at  the  southwestern  extremity,  of  which  a  bend 
in  the  ledge  hid  from  our  view  all  but  the  rising  flames.  Evidently,  a  short  time 
before,  the  ledge  had  been  overflowed,  as  the  lava  was  piled  in  masses  twenty  feet 
high  or  more,  on  its  outer  edge,  gradually  decreasing  in  height  as  it  rolled  in  im- 
mense waves  from  it ;  and,  without  doubt,  the  whole  mass  had  been  raised,  as  we 
could  now  stand  upon  it  and  pluck  ferns  from  the  bank.  We  walked  around  the 
crater  on  the  black  ledge,  endeavoring  to  find  a  place  where  it  would  be  practicable 
to  descend,  but  the  banks  were  everywhere  too  much  broken  up  to  admit  of  it.  In- 
dependently of  that,  they  were  so  heated,  that  the  brink  could  only  be  approached 
in  a  few  places,  and  these  only  at  great  risk.  It  was  cracked  into  great  chasms, 
from  a  few  feet  to  a  rod  in  width,  to  which  no  bottom  could  be  seen,  and  in  places 
large  masses  had  swollen  up,  and  then  tumbled  in,  like  the  bursting  of  an  air-bubble 
or  the  falling  in  of  a  vast  dome.  The  hollow,  echoing  sound  beneath  our  feet, 
showed  the  insecurity  of  where  we  trod,  and  liability  to  give  way,  and  precipitate 
us  at  any  moment  to  instantaneous  death ;  and  I  must  confess  that  it  was  with 
fear  that  J  walked  along  this  path  of  destruction.  On  the  surface  of  the  ledge  the 
rock  was  black  and  very  vesicular,  but  as  it  descended  it  grew  more  compact,  and 


APPENDIX.  239 

became  of  a  white  or  leadish  color.  From  all  these  pits  and  chasms  a  white  flick- 
ering flame  ascended,  so  hot  in  one  place  that  we  attempted  to  cross  as  to  singe 
the  hair  from  our  hands  and  scorch  our  clothing.  Nothing  but  a  precipitate  retreat 
saved  us  from  being  enveloped  in  flames.  The  hot  air  would  frequently  flash  up 
from  the  fissures  without  warning,  and  it  required  much  caution  and  agility  to 
escape  from  it.  The  thermometer,  over  one  fissure,  rose  to  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
two  degrees ;  on  the  ledge,  five  hundred  feet  from  the  brink,  three  feet  above  the 
ground,  ninety-seven  degrees;  on  the  lava  at  the  same  place,  one  hundred  and 
twenty-three  degrees  ;  two  feet  above  a  fissure,  one  hundred  and  forty-eight  degrees  ; 
eighteen  inches  below  the  surface,  it  rose  instantly  to  one  hundred  and  sixty-six 
degrees.  Continual  heavy  explosions  were  occurring  on  the  sides,  sounding  like 
muffled  artillery,  throwing  up  stones,  ashes  and  hot  steam  two  hundred  feet  or 
more  into  the  air,  and  rending  away  the  banks,  tumbled  large  masses  of  rock  into 
the  crater  beneath.  Indeed,  the  whole  black  ledge  appeared  like  a  mere  crust,  the 
igneous  action  beneath  having  eaten  away  its  support,  and  which  the  slightest 
shock  would  precipitate  into  the  gulf  beneath,  and  thus  restore  the  crater  to  its 
ancient  limits. 

"  Small  cones  and  diminutive  piles  of  lava  -were  scattered  over  its  whole  sur- 
face, where  they  had  suddenly  rose  and  as  quickly  cooled.  They  had  assumed 
many  fantastic  and  even  beautiful  shapes,  and  their  hues  were  singularly  brilliant 
and  varied.  On  the  southeast  and  south  sides,  lava  had  gushed  laterally  from  the 
bank,  and  flowed  down  from  the  ledge.  Near  here  are  the  sulphur  hills,  from 
which  the  finest  specimens  are  obtained.  They  were  prettily  coated  with  fine 
white,  blue  and  green  salts,  but  owing  to  the  intense  heat  and  suffocating  fumes  of 
the  gases,  we  were  unable  to  secure  many.  A  little  farther  on,  we  found  the  lava 
fissures  incrusted  with  the  most  beautiful  crystals  and  efflorescences,  which  had 
condensed  into  every  variety  of  form  and  figure,  but  too  delicate  to  bear  exposure 
to  the  atmosphere.  Having  reached  the  southern  extremity,  we  obtained  our  first 
view  of  the  lake,  the  light  of  which  had  attracted  our  attention  the  previous  night. 
It  was  several  hundred  yards  in  circumference,  and  in  the  most  sunken  part  of  the 
cauldron.  The  lava  was  twenty  feet  below  its  banks,  a  liquid  body,  boiling,  bub- 
bling, and  thrashing  in  great  fury.  Occasionally  it  would  become  incrusted  over, 
and  then  red  streaks  would  shoot  rapidly  across  its  surface,  leaving  a  momentary 
glimmer  like  meteors.  In  the  centre,  the  lava  was  tossed  high  into  the  air,  with  a 
puffing,  spluttering  noise  like  the  blast  of  a  heavy  bellows,  mingled  with  the  roar 
of  the  surf.  Its  color  was  livid,  much  resembling  clotted  blood,  of  which  the  whole 
might  be  taken  for  an  immense  hell-brewed  cauldron,  and  the  unearthly  noises  for 
the  moans  of  agonized  spirits,  and  the  fiendish  cries  of  their  tormentors.  The 
effect  upon  the  imagination  was  powerful,  and  the  reality  horrible  and  hellish^  be- 
yond description.  To  the  leeward  the  gases  were  strong,  requiring  much  caution 
to  avoid  the  stifling  currents  of  heated  air.  On  the  northwest  side,  filamentose  lava, 
commonly  called  *  Pele's  hair,'  was  thickly  strewed  for  many  acres,  like  a  field  of 
mown  grass. 

"  Mr.  C.  and  myself,  having  performed  the  circuit  until  we  were  underneath 
where  our  hut  stood,  where  the  bank,  having  given  way  to  a  considerable  height, 
formed  a  steep  hill,  which  appeared  quite  practicable  of  ascent,  we  proposed  to 
shorten  the  distance  by  climbing  up  at  this  spot.  No  sooner  thought  of  than  we 
made  the  attempt,  and  reached  the  first  two  hundred  feet  without  any  difficulty. 
Here,  the  summit  being  hid  from  us,  we  held  a  consultation  whether  to  proceed  or 
not.  Upon  looking  down,  we  saw  our  natives  gazing  in  astonishment  at  us,  and 
urging  us  to  return,  saying  that  it  was  impossible  for  us  to  reach  the  top,  and 
nothing  but  a  bird  could.  However,  like  all  obstinate  personages,  we  did  not  like 
to  retrace  our  steps,  so  we  pushed  ahead.  A  few  rods  more  climbing  brought  us 
to  the  perpendicular  face  of  the  rock,  or  rather  rocks,  which  were  loosely  imbedded 
in  earth,  and  relieved  only  by  some  jutting  points  and  a  few  roots,  on  which  but 
little  dependence  could  be  placed.  We  were  now  so  high  that  it  was  impossible 


240  APPENDIX. 

to  descend,  as  we  could  not  see  where  to  place  our  feet  beneath  us,  and  the  slight- 
est look  downwards  might  make  us  loosen  our  hold  and  be  dashed  to  pieces.  Not 
the  least  danger  was,  that  one  of  us  might  loosen  a  stone,  which  starting  would 
draw  down  an  avalanche  of  others,  and  ourselves  with  them.  By  looking  up,  zig- 
zagging along  the  edge  of  the  rocks,  and  bearing  our  weight  equally  as  possible  on 
all  parts  of  our  bodies,  we  drew  ourselves  slowly  up,  until  we  were  within  ten  feet 
of  the  top.  Here  we  met  with  the  '  unkindest  cut  of  all.'  The  rock  was  the 
smoothest,  and  just  at  the  rising  of  the  brink,  hot  steam  issued  from  it,  making  the 
earth  scalding  and  slippery.  Mr.  C.  being  ahead,  and  blessed  with  the  longest 
legs,  managed,  by  bearing  his  whole  weight  upon  a  projecting  point  of  rock,  not 
three  inches  in  diameter,  to  make  a  spring,  and  at  the  same  time  clawing  into  the 
soft  earth,  he  reached  the  summit  with  only  burnt  fingers.  He  then  laid  down 
upon  his  back,  with  his  arms  over  his  head,  clinging  to  roots,  and  dangled  his  legs 
over  the  precipice  to  assist  me.  Following  his  steps,  I  hitched  myself  up,  and 
making  a  grab  at  his  toes,  was  safely  toed  to  the  bank.  It  was  not  until  we  were 
in  perfect  safety,  that  we  realized  the  full  extent  of  our  danger,  and  our  consum- 
mate folly  in  rushing  into  it.  The  slightest  misstep,  or  want  of  presence  of  mind, 
would  have  hurried  us  to  immediate  death ;  and,  while  we  felt  grateful  for  our 
escape,  we  vowed  another  time  *  to  look  before  we  climbed.' 

"  In  the  excitement  of  visiting  this  wonderful  phenomenon,  its  real  dangers  are 
overlooked,  and  many  unnecessary  risks  undergone.  No  accident  has  as  yet  hap- 
pened, but  some  escapes  have  been  little  short  of  miraculous.  Two  gentlemen,  a 
number  of  years  since,  were  in  the  heart  of  the  crater,  examining  the  burning  caul- 
dron, when  a  rumbling  noise  was  heard,  and  an  earthquake  felt.  The  rocks  began 
to  rattle  down  the  sides  of  the  chasm,  and  the  ground  beneath  them  was  so  unsteady, 
that  they  could  not  leave  the  spot  where  they  were.  Providentially  it  was  slight, 
and  soon  over,  and  no  eruption  followed.  In  January,  1841,  Dr.  G.  P.  Judd 
descended  the  crater,  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  some  of  the  liquid  lava.  Not 
being  able  to  reach  it  at  the  great  lake,  he  ventured  into  a  smaller  one,  at  the  bot- 
tom of  which  there  was  a  small  stream.  It  appeared  very  quiet,  the  banks  were 
steep,  and  he  found  some  difficulty  in  reaching  it.  Having  obtained  a  frying-pan 
full,  he  had  returned  to  within  a  few  feet  of  its  brink,  the  steepest  part,  when  a 
roar  and  a  hissing  noise  alarmed  him  ;  a  stream  of  lava  in  a  narrow  column  was 
forced  up  into  the  air,  far  above  his  head,  and  descended  in  a  shower  all  around. 
Much  alarmed,  he  shouted  for  help.  All  of  the  natives  near  by  ran  away,  except 
one,  who  threw  himself  upon  his  stomach,  and  grasping  the  Doctor's  hand,  assisted 
him  out.  But  before  this  was  accomplished,  the  lava  rose  so  rapidly,  that  the  heat 
of  it  burned  his  clothes,  aud  blistered  the  face  and  hands  of  the  native.  They  were 
no  sooner  on  their  feet,  than  the  lava  overflowed,  and  they  were  obliged  to  run 
with  all  speed  to  avoid  being  overtaken  by  the  torrent.  A  narrower  escape  from  a 
more  horrible  death,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive. 

"  It  is  a  common  remark,  that  travelers  visiting  the  volcano,  even  at  short  inter- 
vals, never  see  it  under  similar  circumstances,  and  consequently  are  apt  to  discredit 
previous  statements.  A  moment's  reflection  should  convince  them,  that  with  such 
a  mighty  engine  of  nature,  exercising  in  their  highest  degree  the  combined  powers 
of  fire,  heated  air,  and  steam,  and  continually  in  action,  great  changes  are  moment- 
arily liable  to  occur ;  and  that  they  do,  these  very  discrepancies  bear  ample  testi- 
mony. It  would  be  an  interesting  point  gained  in  geological  science,  if  some  ob- 
serving man  could  reside  in  the  neighborhood  and  note  the  various  changes,  at  the 
periods  of  their  occurrence. 

"  I  have  endeavored  to  present  a  faithful  picture  of  it  as  it  appeared  at  our  visit, 
and  it  evidently  differs  much  from  all  preceding  descriptions.  Douglas  makes  the 
depth  of  the  crater,  in  1834.  one  thousand  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven  feet.  At 
the  present  time  it  had  rilled  up  one  half,  and  the  black  ledge,  which  had  been 
gradually  rising,  was  in  some  places  within  three  hundred  feet  of  the  top,  while 
former  accounts  state  it  at  eight  hundred.  A  few  years  since,  the  basin  was  much 


APPENDIX.  241 

in  its  present  state,  like  the  inside  of  a  bowl.  A  foreigner  who  visited  it  a  week 
only  before  the  late  eruption,  described  it  as  resembling  a  dome,  there  being  a  grad- 
ual ascent  from  the  sides  to  the  centre  ;  the  lava  having  overflowed  the  whole  of 
the  black  ledge,  the  limits  of  which  could  not  be  traced.  The  whole  surface  was 
in  violent  action,  thickly  indented  with  fiery  lakes,  and  crowned  with  puffing  cones, 
and  forges,  whose  bases  were  lashed  by  burning  waves,  and  the  whole  accompanied 
with  dreadful  noises.  Had  not  the  liquid  lava  found  a  vent  by  pushing  its  way 
through  subterranean  galleries  until  it  met  with  a  weak  spot,  which  its  gravity 
soon  forced  through,  and  running  out  until  the  fiery  mass  in  the  crater  subsided  to 
a  level  with  the  outlet,  it  might  have  risen  to  the  top,  and  overflowing,  destroyed 
all  that  portion  of  the  island.  The  immense  lateral  pressure  which  must  exist,  in- 
creasing as  the  crater  fills  up,  will  probably  prevent  any  great  and  sudden  disaster 
of  this  kind,  by  forcing  an  outlet  toward  the  sea,  as  it  did  in  this  instance.  Though 
so  much  has  drained  out,  an  immense  body  still  remains  in  the  volcano.  On  the 
second  night  of  our  stay,  the  fires  were  much  more  brilliant,  and  the  reports  more 
frequent. 

"  It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  on  all  the  islands  the  general  course  of  volcanic 
action  is  southeasterly,  or  rather,  the  craters  form  a  chain  from  the  northwest  to  the 
southeast.  On  Hawaii,  Mauna  Kea  appears  to  have  been  extinguished  first,  then 
Hualalai.  Mauna  Loa  has  probably  fire  still  beneath,  though  it  has  gradually 
cooled  down  by  forming  a  series  of  lateral  craters,  extending  from  the  great  one  on 
the  summit  to  Kilauea,  which  is  now  the  great  fountain-head.  Kilauea  is  pushing 
itself  eastelry,  as  the  late  eruption  bears  witness,  and  the  whole  earth  in  that  direc- 
tion is  doubtless  pierced  with  galleries,  which  carry  off  the  superabundant  lava ; 
and  when  the  ground  becomes  too  weak  to  bear  the  pressure,  it  forces  its  way  to 
the  surface,  and  flows  until  it  creates  a  common  level  at  Kilauea.  The  several 
eruptions  can  easily  be  traced  towards  the  sea  ;  and  a  series  of  lateral  craters  also, 
some  of  considerable  extent,  which  have  no  doubt  been  fed  from  Kilauea.  One, 
six  miles  to  the  east,  is  a  mile  in  diameter,  and  emits  smoke  and  sulphurous  gases. 

"  It  is  a  common  remark  that  Kauai  is  the  oldest  island,  and  that  the  others 
have  been  successively  thrown  up  from  the  ocean.  In  confirmation  of  this,  we 
meet  on  that  island  a  greater  depth  of  soil,  more  vegetation,  and  far  more  arable 
land  in  proportion  to  its  extent,  than  on  the  others,  while  at  its  southeastern  extrem- 
ity only,  exist  two  small  craters.  Age  has  reduced  others  (if  such  there  were)  to 
the  level  of  the  surrounding  soil,  or  clothed  them  with  forests,  so  that  their  limits 
are  undistinguishable.  On  Oahu,  the  traces  of  volcanic  action  become  more  numer- 
ous, and  the  craters  larger,  while  on  Maui  the  principal  one  forms  a  mountain  of 
ten  thousand  feet  elevation.  But  it  is  not  until  we  reach  Hawaii,  that  this  terrible 
agency  assumes  its  grandest  and  most  sublime  forms.  Of  the  age  of  this  island 
we  can  only  conjecture  ;  it  may  have  been  coeval  with  the  flood,  or  have  been  formed 
since  the  Christian  era.  Certainly,  no  one  can  view  the  mighty  ruins  of  nature, 
and  the  process  of  creation  and  destruction,  as  it  were  in  perpetual  contest,  without 
realizing  the  truth  of  the  transitory  existence  of  this  earth,  and  that  the  day  may  be 
not  far  distant  when  indeed  '  the  elements  shall  melt  with  fervent  heat.'  Hawaii 
is  fearful  ground  to  tread  upon.  We  are  amazed  at  beholding  the  visible  fires  of 
Kilauea  and  their  terrific  action,  but  what  are  they  but  a  mere  speck  in  comparison 
with  the  immensity  and  power  of  the  force  required  to  raise  up  mountains  of  three 
miles  perpendicular  elevation,  with  bases  of  one  thousand  five  hundred  square 
leagues.  Hawaii  was  formed  by  continual  and  repeated  eruptions,  depositing  layer 
of  rock  upon  layer,  until  it  attained  its  present  elevation ;  and  for  aught  we  know 
the  same  action  is  still  going  on,  at  present  quietly,  but  ready  at  any  moment  to 
burst  out  and  overwhelm  its  unsuspecting  inhabitants.  There  cannot  be  a  doubt 
that  to  a  great  extent  the  interior  of  Hawaii  is  a  vast  globe  of  fire,  against  the  sides 
of  which  the  liquified  rocks  dash  their  fiery  spray,  and  roll  with  unceasing  noise  ; 
and  were  it  not  for  the  number  and  magnitude  of  its  vents,  it  would  be  shaken  to 
pieces  by  successive  earthquakes.  Those  who  live  amid  these  scenes,  scarce  be- 
31 


242  APPENDIX. 

stow  a  thought  upon  the  dangers  which  environ  them.  But  Vesuvius,  after  having 
been  dormant  for  a  thousand  years,  revived,  and  buried  several  cities  in  its  devast- 
ating streams ;  and  the  inhabitants  of  Catania,  in  Sicily,  regarded  as  fables  the  his- 
torical accounts  of  previous  eruptions  of  jEtna,  until  they  were  themselves  over- 
whelmed in  a  sudden  and  instantaneous  destruction.  In  many  places  where 
volcanoes  have  become  overgrown  with  wood,  and  covered  even  with  elegant  villas, 
they  have  with  scarce  a  warning  burst  forth  and  laid  waste  whole  districts,  as  in 
1812,  at  St.  Vincents,  West  Indies,  where  nearly  all  the  plantations  on  that  island 
were  destroyed,  the  lava  flowing  so  rapidly  as  to  reach  the  sea  in  four  hours. 
When  this  eruption  took  place,  the  earthquakes  at  Caracas,  four  hundred  miles 
distant,  ceased,  evidently  showing  that  there  was  a  connection  betwreen  the  two 
places.  With  such  precedents,  it  would  certainly  not  be  astonishing  if  any  of  these 
craters,  which  are  at  present  quiescent,  should  at  any  moment  burst  forth,  and 
renew  similar  scenes  of  desolation  ;  and  even  Kauai  may  give  vent,  by  some  sub- 
marine communication,  to  the  fires  of  Hawaii." 


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